Skip to main content
Urban Dictionary Merch
Your favorite words on things you can wear, drink from, read, or give to a friend.
The Urban Dictionary Store sells gifts you’ll have to explain.

The Gray Champion 

A character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Gray Champion," often associated with his collection "Twice-Told Tales."

To literature students, Gray is far less well-known than some of Hawthorne's more successful literary works, such as "The Scarlet Letter."

In the story, he is a pilgrim-esque ghost figure that appears briefly in the 18th-century world to protest power abuses by a British officer.

While he does little in the story but march around, denounce the officer, and then vanish into thin air, his spirit of defiance stirs and inspires the crowd around him. Shortly after this, the officer loses his position, just as the apparition of Gray had promised.

The tale warns of pride coming before a fall in the human heart, similar to how Scarlet Letter warns against lust, secrecy, and hypocrisy. While the events of the story are pre-Revolution, the tone is very much that of the American Revolution.

The story was written in 1835, and became part of Twice-Told Vol. 1 in 1837. As of 2006, little has been done by Hollywood in terms of making any sort of movie or adaptation or anything of Gray Champion, though several movies have been made of Scarlet Letter, and a few movies have been attempted at some of Hawthorne's other works.

While not a comic book character by design, Hawthorne's character has an introduction style that befits typical comic book superhero conventions:

(See QUOTE 1)

Other lines stick out, such as:

"Who is this gray patriarch?" and more. Towards the end of the short story, Hawthorne-as-narrator promises a possible return of the character, beginning such with these lines:

(See QUOTE 2)

Some of these openings, quotes, and closings are not unlike typical lines used in modern-day superhero tales.
QUOTE 1
=======
"Suddenly, there was seen the figure of an ancient man, who seemed to have emerged from among the people, and was walking by himself along the center of the street, to confront the armed band. He wore the old Puritan dress, a dark cloak and a steeple-crowned hat, in the fashion of at least fifty years before, with a heavy sword upon his thigh, but a staff in his hand, to assist the tremulous gait of age..."
========
--Hawthorne, narrating.

QUOTE 2
=======
"And who was the Gray Champion? Perhaps his name might be found in the records of that stern Court of Justice, which passed a sentence, too mighty for the age, but glorious in all after times, for its humbling lesson to the monarch and its high example to the subject..."
=========

The Gray Bar Hotel 

This is what the slang name for the Hall Of Justice Jail in downtown Los Angelas was. ( H.O.J.J)
The jail was located on the upper floors of the city hall building. When the inmates would go to court via the under the street passage between the court building and the jail, one could see that name on the barred (grey) entranceway leading to the jail.
The inmates filed past the deputies leading the way into the Gray Bar Hotel.

the gray window 

That moment for a man when the right amount of gray hair in your beard/hair starts to attract 20 year olds like lemmings. (Particularly true for Gay men. See also: Daddy)
Why are so many chickens crossing the road? Because I'm in the Gray Window.

The Gray Fox

The Gray fox is the Leader of the Thieves Guild in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He wears the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, which the Gray Fox stole 300 years ago from Nocturnal, the Patron Daedra of Thieves. The Guild refrains from talking about him, and some citizens believe he doesn't exist.
Guard: You-you're the Gray Fox! You're under arrest for...a bunch of things. I'll get promoted for this."

man in the gray suit 

All varieties of sharks
Don't go surfing in the rain or you may get a visit from the man in the gray suit.

playing in the gray 

(phrase) Name given to the activity of injecting heroin or perhaps fentanyl laced heroin where more than likely someone will overdose , lose consciousness, and will be in critical need of some type of intervention by others so that they might be brought back from the shadows of death and/or the spirit world. To become acquainted with such dangerous activity often includes a resurrectionist, who oftentimes is successful in bringing life back to the dying. The phrase gets its title from the color that the skin turns of those who have overdosed and are dying moments before they are returned to the land of the living.
Tabby, Toby, and Timmy got back to the crib with some decent H, flavored with a generous enough amount of fentanyl in it as well, certain to bring its host past the threshold of death…..so that all got their gear together and got to work. Turned out that Timmy got his in first cause he was the first to go down like deadweight, slobbering in such a way to scare those unacquainted with the game these friends were playing. Putting each other’s lives in the others’s hands this trip were playing in the gray and each one of them knew what the others looked like as they lay on death’s doorstep. Very scary to many of us tweekers.
More from Urban Dictionary

briefcake 

"Did you check out the briefcake in courtroom C?"
briefcake by Ben Frey April 6, 2006
Word of the Day on November 3, 2026
Brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in the book on the fall of Richard Nixon, All The President’s Men, ratfucker was Nixon’s term for a political operative who sows chaos among opponents; an agent provocateur. It is thought to have originated among campus political rivalries at USC, and seems to have some usage in the US military.
Along with Nixon’s other ratfuckers, Roger Stone caused fights at otherwise peaceful Democratic Party protests to generate a false narrative that the Democrats were violent and dangerous.
Ratfucker by Ricky Ramjet November 2, 2017
Word of the Day on November 2, 2026

countrypolitan 

Term used to describe someone who is a mix of both rural (country) and urban (metropolitan) lifestyles/upbringings. He/she is typically equally comfortable in both settings and is able to seamlessly slip back and forth between the two, appreciating the characteristics of each.
That ol' gal of mine drives the 12 lane freeway during the week and a John Deere on the weekends. She likes opra and the Grand Ol' Opry. I love them countrypolitan women.
countrypolitan by MOChick November 7, 2006
Word of the Day on November 1, 2026

Witch Bath 

A bath consisting of a variety of slats, oils, soaps or any other added ingredients such as fruits, milks, herbs or any other spices for health or beautifying benifits.
She brought home alot of stuff and took it to the bathroom. She must be taking a witch bath.
Witch Bath by carnieboy30 October 26, 2020
Word of the Day on October 31, 2026

kinktober 

An excuse for people to write porn with different types of kinks throughout the month of October.

Smut Fanfiction
That chick doesn't write often but when she does, its for Kinktober.
kinktober by Kinkiest July 12, 2018
Word of the Day on October 30, 2026

proper lad 

a lad that is such a lad that he is a proper lad
person1:did you see bob
person2: ya he was a proper lad
Word of the Day on October 29, 2026
Load more