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sedge

[sej]
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noun
  1. any rushlike or grasslike plant of the genus Carex, growing in wet places.Compare sedge family.
  2. any plant of the sedge family.
  3. siege(def 5).
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Origin of sedge

before 900; Middle English segge, Old English secg; akin to saw1; presumably so named from its sawlike edges
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sedge

Historical Examples

  • I waded on, casting and playing beyond the lily pads and sedge.

    The Rise of Roscoe Paine

    Joseph C. Lincoln

  • They lay across the road, or to either hand in the melancholy fields of sedge.

    The Long Roll

    Mary Johnston

  • The rest of High Bar is only a few acres of sedge and marsh.

    Torchy and Vee

    Sewell Ford

  • One of the lower terraces had become a wild mere of sedge and reeds.

  • Already it had cleared the sedge, and was floating out in open water.

British Dictionary definitions for sedge

sedge

noun
  1. any grasslike cyperaceous plant of the genus Carex, typically growing on wet ground and having rhizomes, triangular stems, and minute flowers in spikelets
  2. any other plant of the family Cyperaceae
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Derived Formssedgy, adjective

Word Origin

Old English secg; related to Middle High German segge sedge, Old English sagu saw 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sedge

n.

"coarse grass-like plant growing in wet places," Old English secg "sedge, reed, rush," from Proto-Germanic *sagjoz (cf. Low German segge, German Segge), probably from PIE root *sek- "to cut" (see section (n.) and cf. Old English secg, identical in form but meaning "sword;" and cf. German schwertel-gras "sedge" from schwert "sword"), on notion of plant with "cutting" leaves (cf. etymological sense of gladiolus). Old Irish seisg, Welsh hesgreed "rush" might represent a similar sense development from the same root. Often spelled seg, segg until present form triumphed early 1900s.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper