Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A species of hair-grass, Deschampsia (Aira) cæspitosa. See hair-grass.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And then there was the gentle brook, never roaring or boisterous, but purling among rocks dividing it into still pools, with giant ferns hanging over the stream and bunches of hassock-grass luxuriating in the alluvial soil of its little deltas, and, where the forest receded, a graceful growth of shrubbery feathering the winding banks.

    Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. Thomas Forester

  • The boughs laid hold of his legs and arms, poked him in his face and his stomach, made him shut his eyes tight (though that was no great loss, for he could not see at best a yard before his nose); and when he got through the rhododendrons, the hassock-grass and sedges tumbled him over, and cut his poor little fingers afterwards most spitefully; the birches birched him as soundly as if he had been a nobleman at Eton, and over the face too (which is not fair swishing as all brave boys will agree); and the lawyers tripped him up, and tore his shins as if they had sharks 'teeth -- which lawyers are likely enough to have.

    The Water-Babies Charles Kingsley 1847

  • The boughs laid hold of his legs and arms, poked him in his face and his stomach, made him shut his eyes tight (though that was no great loss, for he could not see at best a yard before his nose); and when he got through the rhododendrons, the hassock-grass and sedges tumbled him over, and cut his poor little fingers afterwards most spitefully; the birches birched him as soundly as if he had been a nobleman at Eton, and over the face too (which is not fair swishing, as all brave boys will agree); and the lawyers tripped him up, and tore his shins as if they had sharks 'teeth -- which lawyers are likely enough to have.

    The Water-Babies A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby Charles Kingsley 1847

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