Definition of "glaucous" [glau•cous]

• Of a pale grayish or bluish green. (adjective)
• Botany Covered with a grayish, bluish, or whitish waxy coating or bloom that is easily rubbed off: glaucous leaves. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The color of the leaves is always more glaucous, that is, of a darker and more bluish green, than is usual in the cauliflowers."
• "Piping plovers, difficult to identify gulls which were herrings? glaucous? great black-backed? and arctic terns were always there."
• "Dainty black-legged kittiwakes and glaucous gulls flew in swirling clouds overhead while black-and-white thick-billed and common murres skimmed low across the water, looking like tuxedo-clad squadrons on maneuvers."