cutting grassn.
1. Any of several grasses or sedges of Australia and New Zealand having sharp-edged leaves or stems, esp. Gahnia psittacorum.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > a grass or grasses > reedy or aquatic grasses > [noun] > other aquatic grasses
reed-grass1597
marram1640
reed meadow grass1772
eel-grass1790
buttongrass1814
cutting grass1831
sea hard-grass1843
sea sand-reed1856
tape-grass1857
spinifex1877
surf-grass1923
1831 Hovell & Hume Journey of Discovery to Port Phillip 1824–5 61 They had the misfortune to encounter that species of long grass, which is known in the colony by the name of the ‘cutting grass’.
1858 T. McCombie Hist. Colony Victoria i. 8 Long grass, known as cutting-grass, between four and five feet high, the blade an inch and a half broad, the edges exquisitely sharp.
1894 Age 19 Oct. 5/8 ‘Cutting grass’ is the technical term for a hard, tough grass about eight or ten inches high, three-edged like a bayonet, which stock cannot eat because in their efforts to bite it off it cuts their mouths.
1968 G. R. Cochrane et al. Flowers & Plants of Victoria 16/2 The leaves of many sedges will often cause deep cuts, and they are commonly referred to as sword grass or cutting grass.
2. = cane-rat n. at cane n.1 Compounds 2.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > superfamily Hystricomorpha (porcupine or guinea-pig) > [noun] > family Thryonomyidae (cane rat)
cane-rat1876
cutting grass1934
grass cutter1946
1934 Times Educ. Suppl. 31 Mar. p. iv/3 The Curator of Mammals was recently informed that some ‘cutting grass’ were being sent as a gift from West Africa... On arrival, they turned out to be three young great cane rats, or ‘ground hogs’.
1960 Times 29 Sept. (Nigeria Suppl.) p. xxi/6 Roast cutting-grass.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1972; most recently modified version published online June 2019).
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n.1831