Meanings
present singular third person gives someone grey hair · participle present giving someone grey hair · past gave someone grey hair · participle past given someone grey hair · alternative give someone gray hair
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo give someone great frustration, confusion, or anxiousness.
Origin
The phrase is influenced by the popular belief that stress can cause the greying of hair (that link wasn't shown to be grounded scientifically until a January 2020 study on stress in mice for the Nature journal).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
give someone grey hair. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/give%20someone%20grey%20hair
“give someone grey hair.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/give%20someone%20grey%20hair. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “give someone grey hair,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/give%20someone%20grey%20hair.
Source: give someone grey hair on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.