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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



462 words match “GRASS”

PLUME n.
anicle of inflorescence resembling a feather, such as is seen in certain large ornamental grasses. Plume bird (Zoöl.), any bird that yields ornamental plumes, especially the species of Epimarchus from New Guinea, and some of the herons and egrets, as the white heron of Florida (Ardea candidissima). -- Plume grass. (Bo…
POA n.
A genus of grasses, including a great number of species, as the kinds called meadow grass, Kentucky blue grass, June grass, and spear grass (which see).
POLL v.
etc.; to mow or crop; -- sometimes with off; as, to poll the hair; to poll wool; to poll grass. Who, as he polled off his dart's head, so sure he had decreed That all the counsels of their war he would poll off like it. Chapman.
PORCUPINE n.
es which become erect when the body is inflated. See Diodon, and Globefish. -- Porcupine grass (Bot.), a grass (Stipa spartea) with grains bearing a stout twisted awn, which, by coiling and uncoiling through changes in moisture, propels the sharp-pointed and barbellate grain into the wool and flesh of sheep. It is fou…
POVERTY n.
constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas. Poverty grass (Bot.), a name given to several slender grasses (as Aristida dichotoma, and Danthonia spicata) which often spring up on old and worn-out fields.
PRAIRIE n. 2 definitions
An extensive tract of level or rolling land, destitute of trees, covered with coarse grass, and usually characterized by a deep, fertile soil. They abound throughout the Mississippi valley, between the Alleghanies and the Rocky mountains. From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the northland. Longfel…
PRASINOUS a.
Grass-green; clear, lively green, without any mixture. Lindley.
PRODUCE v.
irth to; to bear; to generate; to propagate; to yield; to furnish; as, the earth produces grass; trees produce fruit; the clouds produce rain. This soil produces all sorts of palm trees. Sandys. [They] produce prodigious births of body or mind. Milton. The greatest jurist his country had produced. Macaulay.…
PUDDING n.
Same as Puddening. Pudding grass (Bot.), the true pennyroyal (Mentha Pulegium), formerly used to flavor stuffing for roast meat. Dr. Prior. -- Pudding pie, a pudding with meat baked in it. Taylor (1630). -- Pudding pipe (Bot.), the long, cylindrical pod of the leguminous tree Cassia Fistula. The seeds are separately…
PYROCHLORE n.
rons of a yellowish or brownish color and resinous luster; -- so called from its becoming grass-green on being subjected to heat under the blowpipe.
QUAKER n.
Any grasshopper or locust of the genus (Edipoda; -- so called from the quaking noise made during flight. Quaker buttons. (Bot.) See Nux vomica. -- Quaker gun, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material; -- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold to the doctrine, of nonresistance. -- Quaker ladies (…
QUAKING n.
bog of forming peat so saturated with water that it shakes when trodden upon. -- Quaking grass. (Bot.) (a) One of several grasses of the genus Briza, having slender-stalked and pendulous ovate spikelets, which quake and rattle in the wind. Briza maxima is the large quaking grass; B. media and B. minor are the smaller…
QUICK a. 2 definitions
Pregnant; with child. Shak. Quick grass. (Bot.) See Quitch grass. -- Quick match. See under Match. -- Quick vein (Mining), a vein of ore which is productive, not barren. -- Quick vinegar, vinegar made by allowing a weak solution of alcohol to trickle slowly over shavings or other porous material. -- Quick water, qu…
QUICKENS n.
Quitch grass.
QUITCH n.
Same as Quitch grass.
RAFTER v.
To plow so as to turn the grass side of each furrow upon an unplowed ridge; to ridge. [Eng.]
RAMIE n.
The grasscloth plant (Boehmeria nivea); also, its fiber, which is very fine and exceedingly strong; -- called also China grass, and rhea. See Grass-cloth plant, under Grass.
RAMPART v.
To surround or protect with, or as with, a rampart or ramparts. Those grassy hills, those glittering dells, Proudly ramparted with rocks. Coleridge. Rampart gun (Fort.), a cannon or large gun for use on a rampart and not as a fieldpiece.
RANK a.
Luxuriant in growth; of vigorous growth; exuberant; grown to immoderate height; as, rank grass; rank weeds. And, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. Gen. xli. 5.
RATTLESNAKE n.
long-stalked panicle of spore cases rising from the middle of the frond. -- Rattlesnake grass (Bot.), a handsome American grass (Glyceria Canadensis) with an ample panicle of rather large ovate spikelets, each one composed of imbricated parts and slightly resembling the rattle of the rattlesnake. Sometimes called qua…
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