Jump To:

• grass
  grass

  noun

  any plant of the family Gramineae, having jointed stems, sheathing leaves, and seedlike grains.
• Grass
  Grass

  noun

  Günter (Wilhelm) 1927–2015, German novelist, poet, and playwright.

grass

¹ American  

[gras, grahs] / græs, grɑs /

noun

• grass
  plural

1. any plant of the family Gramineae, having jointed stems, sheathing leaves, and seedlike grains.

2. such plants collectively, as when cultivated in lawns or used as pasture for grazing animals or cut and dried as hay.

3. the grass-covered ground.

4. pasture.

   Half the farm is grass.

5. Slang. marijuana.

6. grasses, stalks or sprays of grass.

   filled with dried grasses.

7. the season of the new growth of grass.

---

verb (used with object)

1. to cover with grass or turf.

2. to feed with growing grass; pasture.

3. to lay (something) on the grass, as for the purpose of bleaching.

verb (used without object)

1. to feed on growing grass; graze.

2. to produce grass; become covered with grass.

idioms

1. go to grass, to retire from one's occupation or profession.

   Many executives lack a sense of purpose after they have gone to grass.

2. let the grass grow under one's feet, to delay action, progress, etc.; become slack in one's efforts.

Grass ² American  

[grahs, grahs] / grɑs, grɑs /

noun

1. Günter (Wilhelm) 1927–2015, German novelist, poet, and playwright.

---

Grass ¹ British  

/ ɡras /

noun

1. Günter ( Wilhelm ) (ˈɡyntər). born 1927, German novelist, dramatist, and poet. His novels include The Tin Drum (1959), Dog Years (1963), The Rat (1986), Crabwalk (2002), and Peeling the Onion (2007). Nobel prize for literature 1999

---

grass ² British  

/ ɡrɑːs /

noun

1. any monocotyledonous plant of the family Poaceae (formerly Gramineae ), having jointed stems sheathed by long narrow leaves, flowers in spikes, and seedlike fruits. The family includes cereals, bamboo, etc

2. such plants collectively, in a lawn, meadow, etc

3. any similar plant, such as knotgrass, deergrass, or scurvy grass

4. ground on which such plants grow; a lawn, field, etc

5. ground on which animals are grazed; pasture

6. a slang word for marijuana

7. slang a person who informs, esp on criminals

8. short for sparrowgrass

9. informal an exclamation of disbelief

10. to squander time or opportunity

11. 1. to retire (a racehorse)

    2. informal to retire (a person)

---

verb

1. to cover or become covered with grass

2. to feed or be fed with grass

3. (tr) to spread (cloth) out on grass for drying or bleaching in the sun

4. (tr) sport to knock or bring down (an opponent)

5. (tr) to shoot down (a bird)

6. (tr) to land (a fish) on a river bank

7. slang to inform, esp to the police

grass Scientific  

/ grăs /

1. Any of a large family (Gramineae or Poaceae) of monocotyledonous plants having narrow leaves, hollow stems, and clusters of very small, usually wind-pollinated flowers. Grasses include many varieties of plants grown for food, fodder, and ground cover. Wheat, maize, sugar cane, and bamboo are grasses.

2. See more at leaf

---

grass More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing grass

• don't let the grass grow under one's feet
• put out to grass
• snake in the grass

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• undergrass
  noun
• grassless
  adjective
• grasslike
  adjective
• ungrassed
  adjective
• grassward
  adverb
• grasswards
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• grass
  plural

Etymology

Origin of grass

before 900; Middle English gras, Old English græs; cognate with Dutch, German, Old Norse, Gothic gras; akin to grow, green

Explanation

That short green stuff all over the front lawn is grass. What could be better than lying in the grass on a summer afternoon, gazing up at puffy clouds in a blue sky? The word grass goes back to a root that means "green." You're probably familiar with the grass in back yards and city parks. There's also the grass that covers pastures, meant for cows and sheep to graze on, and the grass of grasslands, growing wild on every continent except Antarctica. If you express envy, you may hear the phrase, "The grass is always greener on the other side." In other words, somehow other people's lives always seem better.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

grass Grass

But with the water shortage leaving a dearth of forage grass and hay, she said it’s getting much harder to earn a living.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

Ruzana Glaeser knows from experience that “the grass is green where you water it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

“It just incenses me because when the elephants are fighting, it’s the grass that always suffers,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Admissions coordinator Freya Long says: "There's no grass, very little hay. I've started getting an increase in requests and I can only imagine it'll get higher with the cost of living."

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

You step off the sidewalk, slip between the trees, follow the almost-path where other sets of feet have pressed the grass down before you.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

A trio of beloved bluegrass albums, “The Grass Is Blue,” “Little Sparrow” and “Halos & Horns,” around the turn of the millennium reestablished her as a performer with extensive roots in rural America.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

Grass has become a recurring feature of Trump’s effort to remake parts of Washington and the White House grounds according to his preferred aesthetic.

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026

That field became the Park Grass Experiment, now the world's oldest experiment on permanent grassland.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

But I don’t expect a Miracle on Grass.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

Grass and tufts of fur flew into the air.

From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• barley
• hay
• meadow
• pasture
• sod
• turf