Spear-grass

Also speargrass, spear grass. [f. SPEAR sb.¹]

  † 1.  = SPEARWORT 3. Obs.

1548.  Turner, Names Herbes (E. D. S.), 84. Flamula is the herbe whiche we cal in englishe Sperewurte or spergrasse.

1579.  T. Lupton, Notable Things, iii. § 91 (1660), 48. Whosoever is tormented with the Sciatica or the Gout, let them take an herb called Speregrasse.

1596.  Shaks., 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.).

1784.  Young’s Annals Agric., I. 197. The soil is light and sandy, and consequently very subject to spear-grass (triticum repens).

1806.  J. Grahame, Birds of Scot., 3. He founds their lowly house, of withered bents, And coarsest speargrass.

1820.  Keats, Lamia, II. 228. Let spear-grass and the spiteful thistle wage War on his temples.

1823.  E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Spear-grass. The coarse sour grass … called couch, squitch, and quitch, in other counties.

1825.  Holdich, Ess. Weeds Agric., 43. Black-grass. (Alopecurus agrestis), also called Black-bent, Spear-grass, Slender Foxtail-grass, &c.

  3.  Amer. a. One or other of several species of meadow-grass, esp. Poa pratensis.

1747.  Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1887, II. 80. The grass which comes in first after ditching is spear-grass and white clover.

1762.  Mills, 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.

1846–50.  A. Wood, Class-bk. Bot., 614. Poa pratensis. Spear Grass…. P. nemoralis. Wood Spear Grass…. P. annna. Annual Spear Grass.

1856.  A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 561. Poa annua.… Low Spear-Grass.

  b.  Some South American grass or plant.

1833.  M. Scott, Tom Cringle, iv. Impervious underwood of prickly pear, penguin, and speargrass.

  c.  Sea spear-grass, a species of manna-grass.

1856.  A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 560. Glyceria maritima,… Sea Spear-Grass.

  4.  Austr. One or other of various grasses belonging to different genera (see quots.).

1847.  Leichhardt, Jrnl., ii. 44. Very disagreeable, however, was the abundance of Burr and of a Spear-grass (Aristida).

1865.  Tenison-Woods, Disc. & Expl. Austr., II. 463, note. The settlers call it spear-grass, and it is, I believe, a species of Anthistiria.

1874.  Ranken, Dom. Australia, v. 86. Sheep in paddocks cannot be so well kept clear of spear grass.

1889.  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.’

1890.  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].

1863.  S. Butler, First Year Canterb. Settl., vi. 81. It [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.

1864.  Daily Tel., 15 Aug., 4/5. A place where an elephant could not crush through the thorn-trees, the great fleshy cactuses, the creeping plants, and the spear-grass.

1884.  J. Gilmour, Mongols, 81. Here and there were the ghost-like remnants of last year’s growth of spear-grass.

1900.  Pollok & Thom, Sports Burma, 378. Coming in contact with spear grass and the fine hair of the bamboo.