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hoary

[hawr-ee, hohr-ee] / ˈhɔr i, ˈhoʊr i /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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This hoary habit embodies the conservative philosophy of family life.

From The Wall Street Journal Nov. 28, 2025

But sometime over this last winter — that numbing, hoary stretch between mid-February and March — I decided this might be the year to reclaim a bit of seasonal delight.

From Salon Oct. 7, 2025

At its foundation, the movie is a hoary cliché with quirk spackled on it.

From Los Angeles Times Mar. 27, 2025

Other animals identified as a potential source of the pandemic were the masked palm civet, which was also associated with the Sars outbreak in 2003, as well as hoary bamboo rats and Malayan porcupines.

From BBC Sep. 19, 2024

It was a very grey day; a most opaque sky, “onding on snaw,” canopied all; thence flakes fell at intervals, which settled on the hard path and on the hoary lea without melting.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

Since the turn of the century, three paths have emerged for washed-up stars, displacing hoarier options like “Hollywood Squares.”

From The New Yorker Sep. 2, 2019

Without a bona fide star role like Lilli, though, you might be hard-pressed to put up with some of the hoarier aspects of “Kiss Me, Kate’s” sexual politics, in Sam and Bella Spewack’s book.

From Washington Post Mar. 14, 2019

Unfortunately, Mr. Urban’s play is far hoarier than Mr. Lucas’s delicate, moving romantic fantasy.

From New York Times Feb. 18, 2014

Perhaps inevitably, “One Arm” is sketchier and hoarier than either of those works.

From New York Times Jun. 10, 2011

The stars of the past and the beacons are paling, The heavens and the waters are hoarier of hue: But the heart in us chants not an all unavailing    Farewell and adieu.

From A Century of Roundels by Algernon Charles Swinburne

But this time, in a series of meetings on Tuesday, the Republican lawmakers brushed him off, shrugged that the romance was over, then tacked on that hoariest of evasions: It’s not you, it’s us.

From Slate Dec. 13, 2023

This is the film’s hoariest plot device, but it does serve a purpose in getting Ben to grow up.

From Salon Jun. 14, 2019

Their goal is to help a lesbian student fulfill her dream of taking her girlfriend to that hoariest and most sacred of teenage social rituals, the prom.

From New York Times Apr. 25, 2019

Where St. John focused on diversity and folk music, Wu Han is concentrating on that hoariest of classical-music tropes, the city of Vienna.

From Washington Post Nov. 5, 2018

Partially clad in the remnants of a navy working rig—tattered canvas jumper and wide trousers—the man looked the embodiment of one of Neptune's hoariest veterans.

From Gold Out of Celebes by Aylward Edward Dingle




Vocabulary lists containing hoary


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