grass
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Grass.
See also: Grass
English
Etymology
From Middle English gras, from Old English græs, from Proto-Germanic *grasą (“grass”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”).
cognates
Cognate with Scots girs, gers, gress (“grass”), North Frisian gäärs, geers (“grass”), Saterland Frisian Gäärs (“grass”), West Frisian gers (“grass”), Low German Gras (“grass”), Dutch gras (“grass, turf, pasture”), German Gras (“grass, weed”), Danish græs (“grass”), Swedish gräs (“grass”), Norwegian Bokmål gress (“grass”), Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk gras (“grass”), 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.
Pronunciation
- enPR: gräs, IPA(key): /ɡɹɑːs/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key):
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): ,
Audio (UK): (file)
Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːs
- enPR: grăs, IPA(key): /ɡɹæs/
Noun
grass (countable and uncountable, plural grasses)
- (countable, uncountable) 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.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:grass
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalms 90:3–6:
- Thou turnest man to destruction: and sayest, Returne yee children of men. / For a thousand yeeres in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past: and as a watch in the night. / Thou carriest them away as with a flood, they are as a sleepe: in the morning they are like grasse which groweth vp. / In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth vp: in the euening it is cut downe, and withereth.
- a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn of Pan”, in Mary W Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: for John and Henry L Hunt, , published 1824, →OCLC, page 169:
- 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.
- 1913, Joseph C Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- '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.
- (countable) Various plants not in family Poaceae that resemble grasses.
- (uncountable) A lawn.
- (uncountable, slang) Marijuana.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana
- 1970, Paul McCartney (lyrics and music), “Get Back”, in Let It Be, performed by The Beatles:
- Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona / For some California grass
- (countable, British, slang) An informer, police informer; one who betrays a group (of criminals, etc) to the authorities.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:informant
- What just happened must remain secret. Don't be a grass.
- 2007, Paul Knight, Coding of a Concrete Animal, page 215:
- He was a grass and an arse lick and he didn't do it for him, he did it for his brother, because if Vaughan had hit him especially with his mallet, Mark was the kind of lowlife that would have pressed charges and then that's a whole different problem.
- 2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 4, column 1:
- Another claimed a £10,000 bounty was put on his head as he was rumoured to be a “grass”.
- (uncountable, physics) Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by random interference.
- (uncountable, slang) Noise on an A-scope or similar type of radar display.
- 1960, Radarman 3 & 2, volume 1, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, page 49:
- The problem in radar detection is to have a signal to noise ratio that will allow the echo to be seen through the grass on the radar screen. The use of a long pulse allows a greater average signal strength to be returned in the target echoes.
- 1963, Analysis of Weapons, page 61:
- 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.
- The season of fresh grass; spring or summer.
- Synonyms: breakup, spring, springtime
- (obsolete, figurative) That which is transitory.
- Synonym: ephemera
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Isaiah 40:7:
- The grasse withereth, the flowre fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth vpon it: surely the people is grasse.
- (countable, folk etymology) Asparagus; "sparrowgrass".
- 1769, Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, 9th edition, page 195:
- '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.'
- (mining) The surface of a mine.
Derived terms
- above grass
- adder's grass
- after-grass
- Aleppo grass
- alkali grass
- Angleton grass
- annual meadow grass
- Antarctic hair grass
- Bahama grass
- bahia grass
- bamboo grass
- barnyard grass
- beachgrass
- beetle grass
- bentgrass, bent grass
- Bermuda grass
- bison grass
- black oat grass
- blade of grass
- blind grass
- blue-eyed grass
- blue grass, bluegrass
- bluejoint reed grass
- bluestem grass
- broadleaf carpet grass
- buffalo grass
- bunch grass
- bunny grass
- bushman grass
- button grass
- California grass
- canary grass
- carnation-grass
- carpet grass
- centipede grass
- cheat grass
- China grass
- Christmas grass
- citronella grass
- clover grass
- cockatoo grass
- cogon grass
- congress grass
- couch grass, couch-grass
- cusa-grass, cusa grass
- cutty grass (Austroderia spp.)
- daba grass
- deergrass, deer's grass
- devil grass, devil's-grass
- diamond grass
- dog grass
- dog's-tail grass
- dogtooth grass
- doob grass, doub grass
- Easter grass
- Efwatakala grass
- elephant grass
- esparto grass
- eyelash grass
- feather grass, feather-grass
- fever grass
- finger grass
- flyaway grass
- gama grass
- get to grass
- goatgrass
- Good Friday grass
- goosegrass
- gordura grass
- go to grass
- grass assassin bug
- grass bass
- grass beef
- grass-bird, grassbird (Megalurus spp.)
- grassbox
- grass carp
- grass catcher
- grass cloth
- grass-comber
- grass court
- grass crab spider
- grass crown
- grasscutting
- grasscycle
- grass dance
- grass-dart
- grass-eater, grasseater
- grass-fed
- grassfinch
- grass fire, grassfire
- grass frog
- grass-green
- grass-grown
- grass grub
- grass hand
- grass hockey
- grasshook
- grasshopper
- grass jelly
- grass knot
- grassland
- grassless
- grasslike
- grass moon
- grass moth
- grass mud horse
- grass of Parnassus
- grass oil
- grass on
- grass parrot
- grass-pea, grass pea
- grass pink
- grassplot
- grass rake
- grass rat
- grass roots, grass-roots
- grass script
- grass shrimp
- grass sickness
- grass-skipper
- grass skirt
- grass snake
- grass staggers
- grass tetany
- grass time
- grass top, grass-tops, grass tops
- grass trap
- grass tree
- grass up
- grass warbler
- grass widow
- grass-widowed
- grass widower
- grass widowhood
- grasswren
- grassy
- grass-yellow
- green as grass
- Guatemala grass
- Guinea grass
- hair grass
- halfa grass
- Harding grass
- hariali grass
- haver-grass
- heartbreak grass
- hear the grass grow
- herds-grass
- hippo grass
- hit into the long grass
- hog grass
- holy grass
- honey grass
- Johnson grass
- kangaroo grass
- kans grass
- kick into the long grass
- Kikuyu grass
- kuskus grass
- lemongrass
- let the grass grow round one's feet
- let the grass grow under one's feet
- little bluestem grass
- love grass
- lyme grass
- maiden grass
- Manila grass
- marram grass
- marsh grass
- marvel grass
- meadow grass
- meadow grass dermatitis
- Means grass
- Merlin's grass
- Mexican feather grass
- midge grass
- Mitchell grass
- molasses grass
- monkey grass
- moor grass
- much grass
- muraina grass
- muttongrass
- Nairobi grass rat
- Napier grass
- needle-and-thread grass
- Neptune grass
- nipa grass
- nut-grass
- oat grass
- one's ass is grass
- onion grass
- orchard grass
- oyster grass
- paddle grass
- painted grass
- palm grass
- pampas grass
- Pará grass, Para grass, para grass
- pearl grass
- penny grass, penny-grass
- pineapple grass
- pinegrass
- pin grass
- pinhole grass
- plume grass
- porcupine grass
- poverty grass
- pudding grass
- punt into the long grass
- purple three-awn grass
- push into the long grass
- put out to grass
- quack grass, quack-grass, quackgrass
- quake grass, quaking grass
- Randall grass
- rattlesnake grass
- Ravenna grass
- ray grass
- razor grass
- redhead grass
- redtop grass
- rescue grass
- Rhodes grass
- ripgut grass
- robin-run-in-the-grass
- rosha grass
- rye-grass, rye grass, ryegrass
- salt grass
- saw-grass, saw grass
- scorpion grass
- scurvy-grass, scurvy grass
- scutch grass
- sea couch grass
- sedge grass
- serpent-grass
- shadow grass
- sheda grass
- shoal grass
- slough grass
- smutgrass
- snake-grass
- snake in the grass
- sour grass
- Spanish grass
- sparrow-grass, sparrow grass
- spear grass, speargrass
- spotless grass yellow
- squirrel grass
- squitch grass
- star grass
- sticker grass
- stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum)
- sugar grass
- supergrass
- susuki grass
- sweetgrass
- Sweet Grass County
- sweet vernal grass
- switchgrass, switch grass
- sword grass
- Tasmanian grass grub
- thatching grass
- the grass is always greener
- the grass is always greener on the other side
- the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
- the grass is always greener on the other side of the road
- tiger grass
- toad-grass
- toothache grass
- touch grass
- touch some grass
- tussac grass. tussock grass
- twitch grass
- Uganda grass
- umbrella grass
- Vasey grass, Vasey's grass
- vernal grass
- watch grass grow
- whiskey grass
- whitlow grass
- widgeon grass
- wind-grass
- windmill grass
- wiregrass
- witchgrass, witch grass (Panicum spp; Elymus repens)
- yardgrass
- yellow bristle grass
- yellow-eyed grass
Descendants
Translations
ground cover plant
|
lawn
|
marijuana
|
informer
|
See also
Poaceae on Wikispecies.Wikispecies 
Grass (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Verb
grass (third-person singular simple present grasses, present participle grassing, simple past and past participle grassed)
- (transitive) To lay out on the grass; to knock down (an opponent etc.).
- Synonyms: flatten, floor, lay low, lay out, knock down, knock out, knock over, strike down
- 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1848, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty, Norton, published 2005, page 709:
- 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.
- (transitive or intransitive, slang) To act as a grass or informer, to betray; to report on (criminals etc) to the authorities.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:rat out
- 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 2:
- "Grassed on me he did," I said morosely. (Note: Grass is English thief slang for inform.)
- (transitive) To cover with grass or with turf.
- (transitive) To feed with grass.
- (transitive) To expose, as flax, on the grass for bleaching, etc.
- (transitive) To bring to the grass or ground; to land.
- 1903, John Buchan, The African Colony:
- 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 […]
- 2011, Deeanne Gist, Love on the Line, page 138:
- 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.
Translations
to inform on
To cover with grass or with turf
Cimbrian
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle High German gras, from Old High German gras, from Proto-West Germanic *gras, from Proto-Germanic *grasą. Cognate with German Gras, English grass.
Noun
grass m
References
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter , Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Lombard
Etymology
From Late Latin crassus. Compare Italian grasso.
Pronunciation
Adjective
grass m (masculine plural grass, feminine singular grassa, feminine plural grasse)
Noun
grass
Romansch
Etymology
From Latin crassus. Compare French graisse.
Noun
grass m