grass

noun

1. (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.

   “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.”

   “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. (countable)Any of the various plants that are not in the family Poaceae that resemble grasses.
3. (uncountable)A lawn.
4. (uncountable)The outside world, especially in the phrase "touch grass".
5. (slang, uncountable)Marijuana.

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

6. (British, countable, slang)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.”

   “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.”

   “Another claimed a £10,000 bounty was put on his head as he was rumoured to be a “grass”.”

7. (uncountable)Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by random interference.
8. (slang, uncountable)Noise on an A-scope or similar type of radar display.

   “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.”

   “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.”

9. (countable, uncountable)The season of fresh grass; spring or summer.
10. (countable, figuratively, obsolete)That which is transitory.

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

11. (countable)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.'”

12. (countable)The surface of a mine.

verb

1. (transitive)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.”

2. (intransitive, slang, transitive)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])”

   “"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..."”

3. (transitive)To cover with grass or with turf.
4. (transitive)To feed with grass.
5. (transitive)To expose, as flax, on the grass for bleaching, etc.
6. (transitive)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.”

name

1. A group of languages spoken in Papua New Guinea.
2. A surname.
3. A township in Spencer County, Indiana, United States, named after pioneer settler Daniel Grass.