grass
See also: Grass
English
Grass.
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): [ɡɹ̠ɑːs]
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): [ɡɹ̠äːs], [ɡɹ̠ɐːs]
Audio (UK) (file)
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɑːs
- enPR: grăs, IPA(key): /ɡɹæs/
- (US, Canada) IPA(key): [ɡɹ̠æs], [ɡɹ̠ɛəs], [ɡɹ̠eəs]
- (Northern England, Ireland) IPA(key): [ɡɹ̠as], [ɡɹ̠æs]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -æs
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 964384981, Psalm 90:3–6:
- Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. / For a thousand years 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 sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. / In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- '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, Britain, slang) An informer, police informer; one who betrays a group (of criminals, etc) to the authorities.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:informant
- 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.
- What just happened must remain secret. Don't 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, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, Radarman 3 & 2 (volume 1, 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.
- 1960, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, Radarman 3 & 2 (volume 1, page 49)
- 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 964384981, Isaiah 40:7:
- Surely the people is grass.
- (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
Terms derived from grass (noun)
- adder's grass
- after-grass
- Aleppo grass
- alkali grass
- annual meadow grass
- Antarctic hair grass
- bahia grass
- bamboo grass
- beachgrass
- 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
- bunny grass
- bushman grass
- button grass
- California grass
- canary grass
- carnation-grass
- carpet grass
- centipede grass
- cheat grass
- China grass
- citronella grass
- clover grass
- cockatoo grass
- cogon grass
- couch grass
- couch-grass
- cusa-grass
- cusa grass
- cutty grass
- daba grass
- daggerblade grass shrimp
- deergrass
- deer's grass
- devil grass
- diamond grass
- dog grass
- dog's-tail grass
- dogtooth grass
- doob grass
- doub grass
- Easter grass
- elephant grass
- feather-grass
- finger grass
- flyaway grass
- gama grass
- get to grass
- goatgrass
- goosegrass
- goosegrass
- go to grass
- grass assassin bug
- grass bass
- grassbird
- grassbox
- grass carp
- grass catcher
- grass-comber
- grass court
- grass crab spider
- grasscutting
- grasscycle
- grass dance
- grass-dart
- grass-eater
- grasseater
- grassfinch
- grass fire, grassfire
- grass frog
- grass-green
- grass-grown
- grass grub
- grass hand
- grass hockey
- grasshook
- grasshopper
- grass jelly
- grassland
- grassless
- grasslike
- grass mud horse
- grass of Parnassus
- grass oil
- grass on
- grass pea
- grass-pea
- grass pink
- grassplot
- grass rake
- grass rat
- grass-roots
- grass roots
- grass script
- grass sickness
- grass-skipper
- grass skirt
- grass snake
- grass staggers
- grass top
- grass tops
- grass-tops
- grass trap
- grass tree
- grass up
- grass warbler
- grass widow
- grass widower
- grass widowhood
- grasswren
- grassy
- grass-yellow
- Guatemala grass
- Guinea grass
- hair grass
- halfa grass
- hariali grass
- heartbreak grass
- hear the grass grow
- herds-grass
- hippo grass
- holy 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
- meadow grass
- meadow grass dermatitis
- Means grass
- Merlin's grass
- midge grass
- molasses grass
- monkey grass
- much grass
- muttongrass
- Napier grass
- needle-and-thread grass
- Neptune grass
- nipa grass
- nut-grass
- oat grass
- one's ass is grass
- onion grass
- orchard grass
- painted grass
- pampas grass
- Pará grass
- para grass
- Para grass
- pearl grass
- penny grass
- penny-grass
- pinegrass
- pin grass
- plume grass
- porcupine grass
- poverty grass
- pudding grass
- punt into the long grass
- push into the long grass
- put out to grass
- quack grass
- quackgrass
- quack-grass
- quaking grass
- Randall grass
- rattlesnake grass
- Ravenna grass
- ray grass
- razor grass
- redtop grass
- rescue grass
- ripgut grass
- rosha grass
- ryegrass
- saw grass
- saw-grass
- scorpion grass
- scurvy-grass
- scurvy grass
- scutch grass
- sedge grass
- serpent-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
- sugar grass
- supergrass
- susuki grass
- sweetgrass
- Sweet Grass County
- sweet vernal grass
- switch grass
- switchgrass
- sword grass
- Tasmanian grass grub
- 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
- tiger grass
- toad-grass
- touch grass
- touch some grass
- tussac grass
- tussock grass
- Uganda grass
- umbrella grass
- Vasey grass
- Vasey's grass
- widgeon grass
- wind-grass
- wiregrass
- witch grass
- witchgrass
- yardgrass
- yellow bristle grass
- yellow-eyed grass
Descendants
- Tok Pisin: gras, garas
- → Fiji Hindi: giraas
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
- 1848, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son
- 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.)[sic]
- 2004, David Nobbs, Sex and Other Changes, page 95:
- "I'm dressed as a woman, but I am still technically a man. I believe that to comply with the law of the land I ought to continue to use the Gents', but in order not to look out place I intend to use the Ladies' from now on. I trust none of you will grass on me..."
- (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.
- 1903, John Buchan, The African Colony
Translations
to inform on
|
To cover with grass or with turf
|
Cimbrian
Alternative forms
- gras (Sette Comuni)
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
- (Luserna, Tredici Comuni) grass
References
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Lombard
Etymology
From Latin crassus. Compare Italian grasso.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɡras/
- IPA(key): [ɡras] (Eastern, Western)
- IPA(key): [ɡraʰ] (Brescian, Bergamasque)
Adjective
grass m (masculine plural grass, feminine singular grassa, feminine plural grasse)
- fat, thick
Noun
grass
- fat, grease
Romansch
Etymology
From Latin crassus. Compare French graisse.
Noun
grass m
- fat