beech mast

American  

noun

1. the edible nuts of the beech, especially when lying on the ground.

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Etymology

Origin of beech mast

First recorded in 1570–80

Example Sentences

Finding food becomes more and more relevant towards the end of the winter when large sources of food, such as beech mast, have become depleted.

From BBC

Great numbers of swine are in the woods of Indiana, far from all human dwellings, where they grow very fat by the abundance of oak and beech mast.

From Project Gutenberg

The river kisses the feet of these happy nonentities; they make many a stately arch and pillar along the water; in spring the pigeon and the storm-thrush nest among their branches; and they gleam with newly-opened foliage and shower their silky shards upon the earth; in autumn they fling a harvest of sweet beech mast around their feet.

From Project Gutenberg

The ground was strewn with acorns and beech mast and horse-chestnuts, quite worth picking up.

From Project Gutenberg

The Communist "network of perceptions and association and interpretations," she writes, "made the Nazi-Fascists seem like hogs rooting among the simple, unimproved beech mast of the world."

From Time Magazine Archive