| 释义 |
ˈspear-grass
Also speargrass, spear grass.
[f. spear n.1]
†1. = spearwort 3. Obs.
1548Turner Names Herbes (E.D.S.) 84 Flamula is the herbe whiche we cal in englishe Sperewurte or spergrasse. 1579T. Lupton Notable Things iii. §91 (1660) 48 Whosoever is tormented with the Sciatica or the Gout, let them take an herb called Speregrasse. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 340 Yea, and to tickle our Noses with Spear-grasse, to make them bleed.
2. One or other of various British grasses, esp. couch-grass (Triticum repens, Agrostis, etc.).
1784Young's Annals Agric. I. 197 The soil is light and sandy, and consequently very subject to spear-grass (triticum repens). 1806J. Grahame Birds of Scot. 3 He founds their lowly house, of withered bents And coarsest speargrass. 1820Keats Lamia ii. 228 Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage War on his temples. 1823E. Moor Suffolk Words, Spear-grass, the coarse sour grass..called couch, squitch, and quitch, in other counties. 1825Holdich Ess. Weeds Agric. 43 Black-grass (Alopecurus agrestis), also called Black-bent, Spear-grass, Slender Foxtail-grass, etc.
3. Amer.
a. One or other of several species of meadow-grass, esp. Poa pratensis.
1747Franklin Lett. Wks. 1887 II. 80 The grass which comes in first after ditching is spear-grass and white clover. 1762Mills Syst. Pract. Husb. I. 152 Mr. Eliot, after draining the swamp [in New England].., sowed it with grass-seed, such as red clover, spear grass,..and herd grass. 1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 614 Poa pratensis. Spear Grass... P. nemoralis. Wood Spear Grass... P. annua. Annual Spear Grass. 1856A. Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 561 Poa annua... Low Spear-Grass.
b. Some South American grass or plant.
1833M. Scott Tom Cringle iv, Impervious underwood of prickly pear, penguin, and speargrass.
c. sea spear-grass, a species of manna-grass.
1856A. Gray Man. Bot. (1860) 560 Glyceria maritima,..Sea Spear-Grass.
4. Austr. One or other of various grasses belonging to different genera (see quots.).
1847Leichhardt Jrnl. ii. 44 Very disagreeable, however, was the abundance of Burr and of a Spear-grass (Aristida). 1865J. E. Tenison-Woods Disc. & Expl. Austr. II. 463 note, The settlers call it spear-grass, and it is, I believe, a species of Anthistiria. 1874Ranken Dom. Australia v. 86 Sheep in paddocks cannot be so well kept clear of spear grass. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Pl. 90 Heteropogon contortus,..‘Spear Grass’. Ibid. 110 These grasses are excellent feeding before the appearance of the inflorescence; afterwards they are known as ‘Spear Grasses’. 1890C. Lumholtz Cannibals 23 A nocuous kind of grass, namely the dreaded spear-grass (Andropogon contortus), which..rendered sheep-raising impossible.
5. A New Zealand umbelliferous plant of the genus Aciphylla.
1851[see Spaniard 3 a]. 1863S. Butler First Year Canterb. Settl. vi. 81 Spaniard..is sometimes called spear-grass, and grows to about the size of a mole-hill.
6. One or other of several Asiatic grasses or plants.
1864Daily Tel. 15 Aug., A place where an elephant could not crush through the thorn-trees,..the creeping plants, and the spear-grass. 1884J. Gilmour Mongols 81 Here and there were the ghost-like remnants of last year's growth of spear-grass. 1900Pollok & Thom Sports Burma 378 Coming in contact with spear grass and the fine hair of the bamboo. |