catchweedn.
/ˈkatʃwiːd/, U.S. /ˈkɛtʃˌwid/, /ˈkætʃˌwid/ Goosegrass or cleavers, Galium aparine. Also more fully (North American) catchweed bedstraw.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > climbing or creeping plants > [noun] > goose-grass or cleavers
cleaversc1000
hairifc1000
tongue-bleedc1450
goose-grass1530
goose-hairif1551
goose-share1578
clithers1597
goose-bill1597
philanthropos1597
love-man1598
rundles1601
rennet wort1688
catchweed1691
goose-tongue1738
sticking-grass1829
scratch-weed1855
turkey-grass1874
beggars'-lice1880
tongue-bleeder1905
1691 J. Ray N. Country Words in Coll. Eng. Words (ed. 2) 35 Hariff and Catchweed; Goose-grease, Aparine.
1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. I. 81 Goosegrass..Cleavers..Catchweed.
1794 W. Pitt Gen. View Agric. Stafford 95 Goosegrass, catchweed, or cleavers, called here Eriff (galium aparine).
1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 154 Leaves, stems, and globular fruits are all bristly, and the latter often cling to the clothing... thus it is called..Catchweed.
1909 F. E. Hulme That Rock-garden of Ours vii. 202 The Gallium Aparine, but known popularly nowadays as goosegrass, though it has many other names, as cleavers, harif, catchweed, grip-grass.
1963 Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. 66 88 Galium aparine L. catchweed bedstraw.
1993 R. L. Zimdahl Fund. Weed Sci. xiii. 289 Catchweed bedstraw is selectively controlled by MCPP [sc. the weedkiller Mecoprop].
2008 Times (Nexis) 18 Feb. 52 The whole plant is covered with hooked bristles that cling to..dogs' fur and to trousers... Other names for it are gripgrass and catchweed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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