grass

Pronunciation: /grɑːs/

Translate grass | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

Definition of grass

noun

1 [mass noun] vegetation consisting of typically short plants with long, narrow leaves, growing wild or cultivated on lawns and pasture, and as a fodder crop.
ground covered with grass.
pasture land:the farms were mostly given over to grass

2a mainly herbaceous plant with jointed stems and spikes of small wind-pollinated flowers, predominant in grass.

Grasses belong to the large family Gramineae (or Poaceae; the grass family), and form the dominant vegetation of many areas of the world. The possession of a growing point that is mainly at ground level makes grasses suitable as the food of many grazing animals, and for use in lawns and playing fields

3 [mass noun] informal cannabis.

4British informal a police informer.
[perhaps related to the 19th-century rhyming slang grasshopper 'copper']

verb

[with object]

1cover (an area of ground) with grass:the railway tracks were mostly grassed over
US feed (livestock) on grass.

2British informal inform the police of someone’s criminal activities or plans: [no object]:someone had grassed on the thieves [with object]:she threatened to grass me up

3catch and bring (a fish) to the riverbank: anglers grassed 294 trout

4chiefly Rugby & Australian Rules knock (someone) down.

Phrases

at grass: grazing: the mare will be out at grass during the day
the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence): proverb other people’s lives or situations always seem better than your own.
not let the grass grow under one's feet: not delay in acting or taking an opportunity.
put out to grass: put (an animal) out to graze.; informal force (someone) to retire.

Derivatives

grassless
grass-like

Origin:

Old English græs, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch gras, German Gras, also ultimately to green and grow

grass in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of grass in the US English dictionary

Subscriber login

Library card login

Other

grass

noun

verb

Phrases

at grass

the grass is always greener on the other side (of the fence)

not let the grass grow under one's feet

put out to grass

Derivatives

grassless

grass-like

Origin:

grass in other Oxford dictionaries

Nearby words

More results for grass

Word of the day

secretagogue