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grass.

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.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɡɹɑːs/[ɡɹ̠ɑːs]Received-Pronunciation[ɡɹ̠äːs]Australia, New-Zealand[ɡɹ̠ɐːs]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. 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 · uncountable
  2. Any of the various plants that are not in the family Poaceae that resemble grasses.

    countable
  3. A lawn.

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

    uncountable
  5. Marijuana.

    slang · uncountable
  6. An informer; snitch, police informer; one who betrays a group (of criminals, etc) to the authorities.

    UK · countable · slang
    What just happened must remain secret. Don't be a grass.
  7. Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by random interference.

    uncountable
  8. Noise on an A-scope or similar type of radar display.

    slang · uncountable
  9. The season of fresh grass; spring or summer.

    countable · uncountable
  10. That which is transitory.

    countable · figuratively · obsolete
  11. Asparagus; "sparrowgrass".

    countable
  12. The surface of a mine.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *grasą Proto-West Germanic *gras Old English græs Middle English gras English grass Inherited from Middle English gras, from Old English græs, from Proto-West Germanic *gras, from Proto-Germanic *grasą (“grass”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots gress (“grass”), North Frisian gaars, geers, Gērs, gjars, gjas, gäärs (“grass”), Saterland Frisian Gäärs (“grass”), West Frisian gers (“grass”), Cimbrian gras, grass (“grass”), German and Luxembourgish Gras (“grass, weed”), Dutch gras (“grass, turf, pasture”), Mòcheno and Vilamovian gros (“grass”), West Flemish ges (“grass”), Yiddish גראָז (groz, “grass”), Danish græs (“grass”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk gras (“grass”), Norwegian Bokmål gras, gress (“grass”), Swedish gräs (“grass”), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍃 (gras, “herb”); also 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.

verb/ɡɹɑːs/[ɡɹ̠ɑːs]Received-Pronunciation[ɡɹ̠äːs]Australia, New-Zealand[ɡɹ̠ɐːs]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To lay out on the grass; to knock down (an opponent etc.).

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

    intransitive · slang · transitive
  3. To cover with grass or with turf.

    transitive
  4. To feed with grass.

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

    transitive
  6. To bring to the grass or ground; to land.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁-der. Proto-Germanic *grasą Proto-West Germanic *gras Old English græs Middle English gras English grass Inherited from Middle English gras, from Old English græs, from Proto-West Germanic *gras, from Proto-Germanic *grasą (“grass”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots gress (“grass”), North Frisian gaars, geers, Gērs, gjars, gjas, gäärs (“grass”), Saterland Frisian Gäärs (“grass”), West Frisian gers (“grass”), Cimbrian gras, grass (“grass”), German and Luxembourgish Gras (“grass, weed”), Dutch gras (“grass, turf, pasture”), Mòcheno and Vilamovian gros (“grass”), West Flemish ges (“grass”), Yiddish גראָז (groz, “grass”), Danish græs (“grass”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norwegian Nynorsk gras (“grass”), Norwegian Bokmål gras, gress (“grass”), Swedish gräs (“grass”), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌰𐍃 (gras, “herb”); also 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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.