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grass

noun
/ɡɹɑːs//ɡɹ̠ɑːs/UK/ɡɹ̠æs/CA

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *grasą Proto-West Germanic *gras Old English græs Middle English gras English grass Inherited from Middle English gras, from Old English græs, from Proto-West Germanic *gras, from Proto-Germanic *grasą (“grass”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots gress (“grass”), North Frisian gaars, geers, Gērs, gjars, gjas, gäärs (“grass”), Saterland Frisian Gäärs (“grass”), West Frisian gers (“grass”), Cimbrian gras, grass (“grass”), German and Luxembourgish Gras (“grass, weed”), Dutch gras (“grass, turf, pasture”), Mòcheno and Vilamovian gros (“grass”), West Flemish ges (“grass”), Yiddish גראָז (groz, “grass”), Danish græs (“grass”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk gras (“grass”), Norwegian Bokmål gras, gress (“grass”), Swedish gräs (“grass”), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍃 (gras, “herb”); also Latin herba (“plant, weed, grass”), Albanian grath (“grass blade, spike”). Related to grow, green. The "informer" sense is probably a shortening of grasshopper (“police officer, informant”), rhyming slang for copper (“police officer”) or shopper (“informant”); the exact sequence of derivation is unclear.

  1. inherited from *gʰreh₁-✻ — “to grow”
  2. inherited from *grasą✻ — “grass”
  3. inherited from *gras✻
  4. inherited from græs
  5. inherited from gras

Definitions

  1. Any plant of the family Poaceae, characterized by leaves that arise from nodes in the…

    Any plant of the family Poaceae, characterized by leaves that arise from nodes in the stem and leaf bases that wrap around the stem, especially those grown as ground cover rather than for grain.

    • The cicale above in the lime, / And the lizards below in the grass, / Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was, / Listening to my sweet pipings.
    • 'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

  2. Any of the various plants that are not in the family Poaceae that resemble grasses.

  3. A lawn.

  4. ›+ 18 more definitions

    1. The outside world, especially in the phrase "touch grass".

    2. Marijuana.

      • Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona / For some California grass

    3. An informer, police informer

      An informer, police informer; one who betrays a group (of criminals, etc) to the authorities.

      • What just happened must remain secret. Don't be a grass.
      • Another claimed a £10,000 bounty was put on his head as he was rumoured to be a “grass”.

    4. Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by…

      Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by random interference.

    5. Noise on an A-scope or similar type of radar display.

      • Some of the scattered waves can be picked up by the receiver and may show up as "grass" on the radar presentation. Weather radars make use of this phenomenon to chart the progress of storms.

    6. The season of fresh grass

      The season of fresh grass; spring or summer.

    7. That which is transitory.

      • The grasse withereth, the flowre fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth vpon it: surely the people is grasse.

    8. Asparagus

      Asparagus; "sparrowgrass".

      • 'Have ready a hundred of ſmall graſs boiled, then ſave tops enough to ſtick the rolls with, the reſt cut ſmall and put into the cream, fill the loaves with them.'

    9. The surface of a mine.

    10. To lay out on the grass

      To lay out on the grass; to knock down (an opponent etc.).

      • The Chicken himself attributed this punishment to his having had the misfortune to get into Chancery early in the proceedings, when he was severely fibbed by the Larkey one, and heavily grassed.
      • He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grass him twice, and got a cut over the knuckles, before I had the upper hand of him.

    11. To act as a grass or informer, to betray

      To act as a grass or informer, to betray; to report on (criminals etc) to the authorities.

      • "Grassed on me he did," I said morosely. (Note: Grass is English thief slang for inform.)^([sic])

    12. To cover with grass or with turf.

    13. To feed with grass.

    14. To expose, as flax, on the grass for bleaching, etc.

    15. To bring to the grass or ground

      To bring to the grass or ground; to land.

      • Let him hook and land a tigerfish of 20 lb., at the imminent risk of capsizing and joining the company of the engaging crocodiles, or, when he has grassed the fish, of having a finger bitten off by his iron teeth […]
      • In typical Necker style, the farmer walked to the line and mounted his gun without any shilly-shally. If he grassed the bird, he and Faurote would go into a shootout. If he missed, Faurote would win.

    16. A group of languages spoken in Papua New Guinea.

    17. A surname.

    18. A township in Spencer County, Indiana, United States, named after pioneer settler Daniel…

      A township in Spencer County, Indiana, United States, named after pioneer settler Daniel Grass.

The neighborhood

Derived

above grass, adder's grass, after-grass, aftergrass, Aleppo grass, alfa grass, alkali grass, all cows eat grass, Angleton grass, annual meadow grass, Antarctic hair grass, arrowgrass, ass in the grass, autograss, Bahama grass, bahia grass, bahiagrass, bamboo grass, barnyard grass, basketgrass, beachgrass, beardgrass, beargrass, beetle grass, bentgrass, bent grass, Bermuda grass, billion-dollar grass, bison grass, blackgrass, black oat grass, blade of grass, blind grass, blue-eyed grass, blue grass, bluegrass, bluejoint reed grass, bluestem grass, bristlegrass, broadleaf carpet grass · +404 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at grass. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01grass02ground03soil04unconsolidated05unconsolidate06deconsolidate07split08grain

A definitional loop anchored at grass. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at grass

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA