Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of the grass family.
  • noun The members of the grass family considered as a group.
  • noun Any of various plants having slender leaves similar to those of a grass.
  • noun An expanse of ground, such as a lawn, covered with grass or similar plants.
  • noun Grazing land; pasture.
  • noun Slang Marijuana.
  • noun Electronics Small variations in amplitude of an oscilloscope display caused by electrical noise.
  • noun Chiefly British Slang An informer.
  • intransitive verb To cover with grass.
  • intransitive verb To grow grass on.
  • intransitive verb To feed (livestock) with grass.
  • intransitive verb To become covered with grass.
  • intransitive verb To graze.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In printing, to discharge (a workman).
  • In printing, to seek or give temporary employment.
  • noun In general, herbage; the plants on which cattle and other beasts feed or pasture; the verdurous covering of the soil.
  • noun Specifically In botany, any plant of the order Gramineœ (which see).
  • noun plural Stalks or sprays of grass: as, the fireplace was filled with dried grasses.
  • noun Asparagus.
  • noun In mining, the surface of the ground at the mine.
  • noun In turf parlance, the time of new verdure; spring or summer: as, the colt will be three this grass.
  • noun See to take heart of grace, under grace.
  • noun The Eleusine Indica. See Eleusine.
  • noun Bermuda grass, Cynodon Dactylon.
  • noun In Queensland, the Chloris divaricata.
  • noun To go into retirement; rusticate: commonly used in the imperative, with the contemptuous force of “Get out!'
  • noun To die; go to the grave.
  • noun To fall violently; be knocked down, as a pugilist in the ring: as, he tripped and went to grass.
  • noun In mining, to the surface: as, send the ore to grass.
  • noun In printing, temporary employment.
  • noun The esparto, Stipa tenacissima.
  • noun See blear-grass, 2.
  • noun In the northwesern United States, Xerophyllum tenax. Its very slender and tough leaves, 2 or 3 feet long, were used by the Indians in making water-tight baskets. This is the bear-grass of Lewis and Clark. Also called squaw-grass and squaw-lily, and, in Idaho, pine-lily. See Xerophyllum.
  • noun Same as Texas millet.
  • noun The freshwater cord-grass, Spartina cynosuroides
  • noun The wire-grass or yard-grass, Eleusine Indica.
  • noun See St. Augustine grass.
  • noun A brown-sedge a foot or two high, Andropogon scoparius, valued for grazing in the mountains of the southern United States. In the West (where it is called little blue-stem) it is less valued than the former for hay.
  • noun Same as guinea-grass.
  • To cover with grass or with turf; furnish with grass: as, to grass a lawn.
  • To throw on or bring down to the grass or ground, as a bird shot on the wing, or a fish caught from the water.
  • To lose in the grass.
  • To feed with growing grass; pasture.
  • To breed grass; be covered with grass.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cover with grass or with turf.
  • transitive verb To expose, as flax, on the grass for bleaching, etc.
  • transitive verb colloq. To bring to the grass or ground; to land.
  • intransitive verb rare To produce grass.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gras, from Old English græs; see ghrē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gras, gres, gers, from Old English græs, gærs ("grass, blade of grass, herb, young corn, hay, plant; pasture"), from Proto-Germanic *grasan (“grass”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to grow”).

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Examples

Comments

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  • Can't think about a prairie without thinking about the native grasses that grow (or should be growing) there. I think I'll go start a list...

    See Free Association.

    February 12, 2008

  • The grass so little has to do, -

    A sphere of simple green,

    With only butterflies to brood,

    And bees to entertain,

    And stir all day to pretty tunes

    The breezes fetch along,

    And hold the sunshine in its lap

    And bow to everything.

    - Emily Dickinson, 'The Grass'.

    November 12, 2008

  • "Go to the train or bus stations and tell them you left your raincoat, gloves or umbrella when you came into town. They'll take you to a room with thousands of unclaimed items. Pick out what you like. While there, notice a neat suitcase or trunk and memorize the markings. Later a friend can claim the item. There will be loads of surprises in any suitcase. We have a close friend who inherited ten kilos of grass this way."

    - Abbie Hoffman, 'Steal This Book'.

    February 18, 2009

  • Until I met WeirdNet I didn't know 'grass' primarily meant "shoot down birds".

    February 18, 2009