Chapter Gregorian Tree to Grievance-monger of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Grethel (Gammer). The hypothetical narrator of the Nursery Tales edited by the brothers Grimm.

Gretna Green Marriages Runaway matches. In Scotland, all that is required of contracting parties is a mutual declaration before witnesses of their willingness to marry, so that elopers reaching the parish of Graitney, or village of Springfield, could get legally married without either licence, banns, or priest. The declaration was generally made to a blacksmith.
   Crabbe has a metrical tale called Gretna Green, in which young Belwood elopes with Clara, the daughter of Dr. Sidmere, and gets married; but Belwood was a "screw," and Clara a silly, extravagant hussy, so they soon hated each other and parted. (Tales of the Hall, book xv.)

Grève (1 syl.). Place de Grève. The Tyburn of ancient Paris. The present Hôtel de Ville occupies part of the site. The word grève means the strand of a river or the shore of the sea, and is so, called from gravier (gravel or sand). The Place de Grève was on the bank of the Seine.

"Who has e'er been to Paris must needs know the Grève,
The fatal retreat of th' unfortunate brave,
Where honour and justice most oddly contribute
To ease Hero's pains by a halter or gibbet."
Prior: The Thief and the Cordelier.

Grey Friars Franciscan friars, so called from their grey habit. Black friars are Dominicans, and White friars Carmelites.

Grey Hen (A). A stone bottle for holding liquor. Large and small pewter pots mixed together are called "hen and chickens."

"A dirty leather wallet lay near the sleeper, ... also a grey-hen which had contained some sort of strong liquor." - Miss Robinson: Whitefriars, chap. viii.

Grey Mare The Grey Mare is the better horse. The woman is paramount. It is said that a man wished to buy a horse, but his wife took a fancy to a grey mare, and so pertinaciously insisted that the grey mare was the better horse, that the man was obliged to yield the point.
    Macaulay says: "I suspect [the proverb] originated in the preference generally given to the grey mares of Flanders over the finest coach-horses of England."
   The French say, when the woman is paramount, C'est le mariage d'epervier (`Tis a hawk's marriage), because the female hawk is both larger and stronger than the male bird.

"As long as we have eyes, or hands, or breath,
We'll look, or write, or talk you all to death.
Yield, or she- Pegasus will gain her course,
And the grey mare will prove the better horse."
Prior: Epilogue to Mrs. Manley's Lucius.

Grey Wethers These are huge boulders, either embedded or not, very common in the "Valley of Stones" near Avebury, Wilts. When split or broken up they are called sarsens or sarsdens.

Grey-coat Parson (A). An impropriator; a tenant who farms the tithes.

Grey from Grief    Ludovico Sforza became grey in a single night.
   Charles I. grew grey while he was on his trial.
   Marie Antoinette grew grey from grief during her imprisonment. (See Gray.)

Grey Goose Wing (The). "The grey goose wing was the death of him," the arrow which is winged with grey goose feathers.

Grey Mare's Tail A cataract that is made by the stream which issues from Lochskene, in Scotland, so called from its appearance.

Grey Washer by the Ford (The). An Irish wraith which seems to be washing clothes in a river, but when the "doomed man" approaches she holds up what she seemed to be washing, and it is the phantom of himself with his death wounds from which he is about to suffer. (Hon. Emily Lawlett; Essex in Ireland, p. 245-6.)