Word.ws English Dictionary

greybacks

greybacks is the plural of greyback.

Meaning of greyback

Noun

greyback (countable and uncountable, plural greybacks)

  1. (US, colloquial, historical) A Confederate soldier during the US Civil War (because of the grey uniforms).
    • ...to resist the farther advance of the greybacks.1871, Mary Stephens Robinson, A household story of the American conflict
    Synonyms:
    graycoat, greycoat
    Antonyms:
    bluecoat, bluebelly
  2. (US, colloquial, historical) A Confederate States dollar during the US Civil War.
  3. (dated) A louse.
    • It is alleged by the defendant that there were scabs and greybacks in it, and that it did not come up to the quality of No. 1 slate as contracted for.1886, Central Reporter: Cases, Courts of Last Resort
  4. (regional) Any of various grey birds.
  5. A kind of paperboard with a smooth white surface on one side and a grey surface on the other side.
  6. (US, historical) A Confederate States dollar.

Questions about greybacks

What is greybacks the plural of?
Greybacks is the plural of greyback.

Words near greybacks in the dictionary

  1. grey-throated rail
  2. grey-throated rails
  3. grey-winged trumpeter
  4. grey-winged trumpeters
  5. greyback
  6. greybacks
  7. greybeard
  8. greybeards
  9. greyboard
  10. greybodies
  11. greybody

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: greybacks (page history and authors); greyback (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “greybacks.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/greybacks. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.