oat

[ oht ]

noun

1. a cereal grass, Avena sativa, cultivated for its edible seed.
2. Usually oats. (used with a singular or plural verb) the seed of this plant, used as a food for humans and animals.
3. any of several plants of the same genus, as the wild oat.
4. Archaic. a musical pipe made of an oat straw.

oat

/ əʊt /

noun

1. an erect annual grass, Avena sativa, grown in temperate regions for its edible seed
2. usually plural the seeds or fruits of this grass
3. any of various other grasses of the genus Avena, such as the wild oat
4. poetic.
   a flute made from an oat straw
5. feel one's oats informal.
   1. to feel exuberant
   2. to feel self-important
6. get one's oats slang.
   to have sexual intercourse
7. sow one's oats or sow one's wild oats
   to indulge in adventure or promiscuity during youth

Other Words From

• oatlike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of oat¹

before 900; Middle English ote, Old English āte

Word History and Origins

Origin of oat¹

Old English āte, of obscure origin

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. feel one's oats, Informal.
   1. to feel frisky or lively.
   2. to be aware of and use one's importance or power.
2. sow one's wild oats. wild oat ( def 3 ).

Example Sentences

She is positively brisk in hustling for apples in the orchard and for heads of oats around the oat stack.

From Project Gutenberg

Little did he think that that middling oat-bearing land was being minded and brooded upon.

From Project Gutenberg

Through the tent flap I have an excellent view of the haystacks and the stack of oat sheaves.

From Project Gutenberg

Meal dus' in my th'oat, grit in my eye, en I aint kin git my breff, skacely.

From Project Gutenberg

He halted upon a knoll in the oat-field, and stood to breathe the cool air from the low-lying meadow.

From Project Gutenberg