Literary notes about dingy gray (AI summary)
The phrase "dingy gray" frequently emerges in literature as a marker for decay, melancholy, and faded beauty. Writers employ it to evoke a sense of drabness or deterioration in both nature and man-made objects. For example, authors describe a river rendered lifeless by autumn rains and rotting leaves as turning a “dingy gray” [1], while a sky and water uniformly enveloped in this hue heighten an atmosphere of desolation [2, 3]. At the same time, the color often signifies aging or a loss of original vibrancy—as seen in the transformation of a spaniel’s black curls to a muted shade [4] or in the unappealing appearance of threadbare uniforms and stained objects [5, 6]. In all these uses, "dingy gray" becomes not merely a physical descriptor but a subtle symbol of neglect and inevitable change.
- The river swirled along, glassy no more, but dingy gray with autumn rains and rotting leaves.
— from Daily Thoughts: selected from the writings of Charles Kingsley by his wife by Charles Kingsley - Sky and water were a uniform dingy gray, and the mist, which had grown thinner round the land, still obscured the seaward horizon.
— from The Secret of the Reef by Harold Bindloss - The sky was now a dismal, dingy gray, and the [Pg 11] leaden-blue water was streaked with flecks and curls of foam.
— from The Boy Ranchers of Puget Sound by Harold Bindloss - Nellie was an ancient spaniel, whose black curls were turning a dingy gray.
— from Sigurd Our Golden Collie, and Other Comrades of the Road by Katharine Lee Bates - Then, in the midst of the hubbub, a man in a dingy gray suit stepped out a yard from the line of convicts.
— from Prisons and Prayer; Or, a Labor of Love by Elizabeth Ryder Wheaton - There, surrounded by a halo of smoke, and hemmed in on all sides by flames, stood a man in a dingy gray suit.
— from Prisons and Prayer; Or, a Labor of Love by Elizabeth Ryder Wheaton
