Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The Adam's-needle or bear-grass, Yucca filamentosa: in allusion to its fiber, which has been the subject of some experiment, but has not been brought into use
- noun A name given to the istle, karatas, ramie (see these names), and some other fibers, also more or less to the plants producing them, though they are little grass-like.
- noun A grass, Oryzopsis cuspidata, of the western United States, whose flowering glumes are densely covered with long silky hairs; also, the similar Stipa comata of the same region.
Etymologies
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Examples
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Maroons still retain their savage freedom, still shoot their wild game and trap their fish, still raise their rice and cassava, yams and plantains, -- still make cups from the gourd-tree and hammocks from the silk-grass plant, wine from the palm-tree's sap, brooms from its leaves, fishing-lines from its fibres, and salt from its ashes.
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I remarked it contained no bed, but a Spanish silk-grass hammock hung low from the ceiling, over which was a mosquito net and a light punkah within it.
A Sailor of King George Frederick Hoffman
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And as Nature is unchanged there, so apparently is man; the Maroons still retain their savage freedom, still shoot their wild game and trap their fish, still raise their rice and cassava, yams and plantains, -- still make cups from the gourd-tree and hammocks from the silk-grass plant, wine from the palm-tree's sap, brooms from its leaves, fishing-lines from its fibres, and salt from its ashes.
Black Rebellion Five Slave Revolts Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1867
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-- The Corawa fiber, or silk-grass of Guiana, is obtained from this plant, which is very strong, and much used for bowstrings, fishing lines, nets, and ropes.
Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture William Saunders 1861
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The end applied to the mouth is bound round with a small silk-grass cord to prevent it splitting; while the other is strengthened by having the seed of a nut, with a hole cut through it, secured round it.
The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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The silk-grass shrub produces a leaf, the inner substance of which consists of a number of small strong white fibres running longitudinally.
The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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To it is attached a bunch of silk-grass, a small piece of bone for scratching the point of the arrows, and a basket for holding wild honey secured round the blunt end.
The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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A broad plank lay on her grave, and on it were placed two bundles, containing the refuse of the silk-grass, of which whips -- employed as will be described -- were made.
The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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They offered to give us silk-grass baskets of their own making, which we modestly refused, knowing that an Indian present, like that of a nun, is a liberality put out to interest, and a bribe placed to the greatest advantage.
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Their blow-pipes hung from the roof of the hut, carefully suspended by a silk-grass cord, and on taking a nearer view of them no dust seemed to have collected there, nor had the spider spun the smallest web on them, which showed that they were in constant use.
Wanderings in South America Charles Waterton 1823
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