Function: noun
Date: 1751
: any of various grasses or rushes having wiry culms or leaves: as a : a Eurasian slender-stemmed meadow grass ( Poa compressa ) widely naturalized in the U.S. and Canada b : any of several coarse grasses (genus Aristida ) with a 3-awned lemma that grow extensively in open dry, sandy, or sterile areas especially of the southeastern and south-central U.S.