"gray man" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gray",
        "3": "man",
        "gloss1": "bland, indistinct",
        "gloss2": "person"
      },
      "expansion": "gray (“bland, indistinct”) + man (“person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "gray (“bland, indistinct”) + man (“person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gray men",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gray men"
      },
      "expansion": "gray man (plural gray men)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1996, \"Colby's Body Found Along River Shore\", Washington Post, Todd Shields, ISSN 0190-8286",
          "text": "He was said to be a perfect match for his own description of the ideal intelligence officer, \"the traditional gray man, so inconspicuous that he can never catch a waiter's eye in a restaurant.\""
        },
        {
          "text": "2000, \"Cassidy's Run: The Secret Spy War Over Nerve Gas\", David Wise, pg.13-3, →ISBN\nBut perhaps that is why he was chosen for his role — a gray man who blended almost invisibly into the background."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency, W. Thomas Smith, page 113",
          "text": "\"Gray man\" is an espionage term describing the \"perfect\" covert operator.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, \"Spycraft for Nerds: Brainy Tips for Winning at Life\", Wired Magazine, Mary H.K. Choi, ISSN 1059-1028",
          "text": "“Your goal is to be the gray man,” says Clinton Emerson, a former Navy SEAL and trainer for the CIA and NSA who now works at the special-ops site SOFREP."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, \"Becoming The ‘Gray Man’: 10 Ways to Blend In and Survive\", Ballistic Magazine, Len Waldron, ISSN 2573-0290, archived at Wayback Machine on 10 May 2019",
          "text": "The Gray Man is in between. He is neither blinged-out nor loud, but also not a head-down, foot-shuffling sheep."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, “‘Bridge of Spies’: The True Story is Even Stranger Than Fiction”, in ProPublica",
          "text": "A gray man in a gray suit slips through the shadows in a black-and-white world carrying encrypted secrets.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, \"How Special Ops Instructors View Candidates\", Military, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Stew Smith, archived at Wayback Machine on 12 October 2017",
          "text": "The Gray Man does not stand out negatively amongst the instructors, but receives good peer evaluations from his classmates."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, The Labyrinth Index, Charles Stross, page 149",
          "text": "There is, in spycraft, a type of professional known as a Gray Man, so-called because they're almost impossible to spot.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An average, forgettable man who does not draw attention or stand out in a crowd."
      ],
      "id": "en-gray_man-en-noun-ktipRoGK",
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "little man"
        },
        {
          "word": "low profile"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "little gray man"
        },
        {
          "word": "little grey man"
        },
        {
          "word": "grey man"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "en:gray man"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "gray man"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gray",
        "3": "man",
        "gloss1": "bland, indistinct",
        "gloss2": "person"
      },
      "expansion": "gray (“bland, indistinct”) + man (“person”)",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "gray (“bland, indistinct”) + man (“person”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gray men",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gray men"
      },
      "expansion": "gray man (plural gray men)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "little man"
    },
    {
      "word": "low profile"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English compound terms",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1996, \"Colby's Body Found Along River Shore\", Washington Post, Todd Shields, ISSN 0190-8286",
          "text": "He was said to be a perfect match for his own description of the ideal intelligence officer, \"the traditional gray man, so inconspicuous that he can never catch a waiter's eye in a restaurant.\""
        },
        {
          "text": "2000, \"Cassidy's Run: The Secret Spy War Over Nerve Gas\", David Wise, pg.13-3, →ISBN\nBut perhaps that is why he was chosen for his role — a gray man who blended almost invisibly into the background."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency, W. Thomas Smith, page 113",
          "text": "\"Gray man\" is an espionage term describing the \"perfect\" covert operator.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, \"Spycraft for Nerds: Brainy Tips for Winning at Life\", Wired Magazine, Mary H.K. Choi, ISSN 1059-1028",
          "text": "“Your goal is to be the gray man,” says Clinton Emerson, a former Navy SEAL and trainer for the CIA and NSA who now works at the special-ops site SOFREP."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, \"Becoming The ‘Gray Man’: 10 Ways to Blend In and Survive\", Ballistic Magazine, Len Waldron, ISSN 2573-0290, archived at Wayback Machine on 10 May 2019",
          "text": "The Gray Man is in between. He is neither blinged-out nor loud, but also not a head-down, foot-shuffling sheep."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, “‘Bridge of Spies’: The True Story is Even Stranger Than Fiction”, in ProPublica",
          "text": "A gray man in a gray suit slips through the shadows in a black-and-white world carrying encrypted secrets.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017, \"How Special Ops Instructors View Candidates\", Military, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Stew Smith, archived at Wayback Machine on 12 October 2017",
          "text": "The Gray Man does not stand out negatively amongst the instructors, but receives good peer evaluations from his classmates."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2018, The Labyrinth Index, Charles Stross, page 149",
          "text": "There is, in spycraft, a type of professional known as a Gray Man, so-called because they're almost impossible to spot.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An average, forgettable man who does not draw attention or stand out in a crowd."
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "en:gray man"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "little gray man"
    },
    {
      "word": "little grey man"
    },
    {
      "word": "grey man"
    }
  ],
  "word": "gray man"
}