grass

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.


grass

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.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 90:3–6:

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.

a. 1823 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn of Pan”, in Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, editor, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, page 169:

'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.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

(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.

(countable) Various plants not in family Poaceae that resemble grasses.

(uncountable) The outside world, especially in the phrase "touch grass".

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

1970, Paul McCartney, “Get Back”, in Let It Be, performed by The Beatles:

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.

2007, Paul Knight, Coding of a Concrete Animal, page 215:

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

2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 4, column 1:

(countable, British, slang) An informer, police informer; one who betrays a group (of criminals, etc) to the authorities.

(uncountable, physics) Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by random interference.

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.

1960, Radarman 3 & 2, volume 1, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, page 49:

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.

(uncountable, slang) Noise on an A-scope or similar type of radar display.

(countable, uncountable) The season of fresh grass; spring or summer.

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

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 40:7:

(countable, obsolete, figurative) That which is transitory.

'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.'

1769, Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, 9th edition, page 195:

(countable, folk etymology) Asparagus; "sparrowgrass".

(countable, mining) The surface of a mine.

en-noun

grass (countable and uncountable, plural grasses)

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

the grass is always greener on the other side of the road

Tok Pisin: gras, garas

Fiji Hindi: giraas

New York, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore

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.


grass

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.

1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC:

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.

1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty, Norton, published 2005, page 709:

(transitive) To lay out on the grass; to knock down (an opponent etc.).

"Grassed on me he did," I said morosely. (Note: Grass is English thief slang for inform.)^([sic])

1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 2:

"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..."

2004, David Nobbs, Sex and Other Changes, page 95:

(transitive or intransitive, slang) To act as a grass or informer, to betray; to report on (criminals etc) to the authorities.

(transitive) To cover with grass or with turf.

(transitive) To expose, as flax, on the grass for bleaching, etc.

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.

2011, Deeanne Gist, Love on the Line, page 138:

(transitive) To bring to the grass or ground; to land.

en-verb

grass (third-person singular simple present grasses, present participle grassing, simple past and past participle grassed)

grasses (present singular third-person)
grassing (participle present)
grassed (participle past)
grassed (past)


grass

head

grass m (masculine plural grass, feminine singular grassa, feminine plural grasse)

grass (masculine plural)
grassa (feminine singular)
grasse (feminine plural)

From Late Latin crassus. Compare Italian grasso.


grass

From Latin crassus. Compare French graisse.