Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A low-growing, weedy grass (Paspalum distichum) with spikelets arranged in two rows along the rachis.
- n. Any of several weedy plants of the genus Polygonum having stems with nodes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A weed of almost world-wide distribution, Polygonum aviculare: so called from the numerous nodes in its stems and its thickly spreading habit. It is a tough trailing and branching plant, common in trodden ground, and often carpeting dooryards, etc. (Also called knotweed, goose-grass, cow-grass, doorweed, etc.) An infusion of it was formerly supposed to retard bodily growth, whence Shakspere calls it “hindering knot-grass.”
- n. By extension, any plant of the genus Polygonum, properly knotweed.
- n. In occasional use, a plant of some other genus more or less similar. Any of the species of Illecebrum or Paronychia; a whitlow-wort, A variety of the false oat, Arrhenatherum avenaceum, having a knotty rootstock. [Prov. Eng.] The florin-grass, Agrostis vulgaris, var. alba (stolonifera). [Prov Eng.] This may be the plant mentioned by Milton.
- n. Couch-grass: a use of doubtful appropriateness.
Wiktionary
- n. An annual plant, Polygonum aviculare, found in fields and wasteland
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a common weed with jointed stems (Polygonum aviculare); knotweed.
- n. The dog grass. See under dog.
WordNet 3.0
- n. low-growing weedy grass with spikelets along the leaf stems
Examples
“But the young woman stood, trying to continue chopping the knotgrass.”
“Soon the sound of those words had grown in the field as thick as knotgrass, as thick as cotton.”
“Leonoa had survived by a blade-thin chance, and even so, she lay four days in a stupor, waking for an evening before lapsing into bone fever, its delirious contortions permanently thwarting her spine's straightness, lengthening one arm and legs, and throwing the plates of her skull awry, gnarling her like a knotgrass doll.”
“Hold it,' said Hagrid abruptly, just as Harry and Hermione were struggling through a patch of thick knotgrass behind him.”
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
“They scoff at Hermia, calling her 'dwarf and minimus' and 'hindering knotgrass'.”
Shakespeare
“There's something else," said Harry, watching Hermione tearing bundles of knotgrass and throwing them into the potion.”
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
“Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, and knotgrass," she murmured, running her finger down the list of ingredients.”
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
“The first family (_Polygoneæ_) is represented by the various species of _Polygonum_ (knotgrass, smart-weed, etc.), and among cultivated plants by the buckwheat (_Fagopyrum_).”
Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses
“The hedgehog footed through the knotgrass slowly, grubbing with his snout to right and left of him.”
"Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character
“The common knotgrass (Polygonum aviculare) grows most luxuriantly, single plants covering a space 4 or 5 feet in diameter, and sending their roots 3 or 4 feet deep.”
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