I. ˈgras noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English gras, from Old English græs; akin to Old High German gras grass, Old English grōwan to grow
Date: before 12th century
1. : herbage suitable or used for grazing animals
2. : any of a large family (Gramineae syn. Poaceae) of monocotyledonous mostly herbaceous plants with jointed stems, slender sheathing leaves, and flowers borne in spikelets of bracts
3. : land (as a lawn or a turf racetrack) covered with growing grass
keep off the grass
the horse had never won on grass
4. plural : leaves or plants of grass
5. : a state or place of retirement
put out to grass
6.
[short for grasshopper, rhyming slang for copper ]
slang British : a police informer
7. : electronic noise on a radarscope that takes the form of vertical lines resembling lawn grass
8. : marijuana
• grass·less -ləs adjective
• grass·like -ˌlīk adjective
II. verb
Date: circa 1500
transitive verb
1. : to feed (livestock) on grass sometimes without grain or other concentrates
2. : to cover with grass ; especially : to seed to grass
intransitive verb
1. : to produce grass
2. slang British : inform 2 — often used with on