- n. A genus of grasses, including species called in common language bent grass. Some of them, as redtop (Agrostis vulgaris), are valuable pasture grasses.
- n. A large genus of grasses, distributed over the globe, and valuable especially for pasturage.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. annual or perennial grasses cosmopolitan in northern hemisphere: bent grass (so named from `bent' meaning an area of unfenced grassland)
The grass here consisted principally of agrostis, near the river, where the land is occasionally inundated, and of uniola, a little further back, growing in tufts.
The grass around was very long, and mostly of very coarse descriptions, consisting chiefly of a species of uniola growing in tufts, agrostis with creeping roots and broad blades; the horses seemed to like the uniola best.
Along the edges of the meadows beneath the pines and throughout the greater part of the Valley tall ribbon-leaved grasses grow in abundance, chiefly bromus, triticum and agrostis.
This grass, with many others of the genus agrostis, has received the name of bent-grass, by the English; here it is always called herds-grass.
Above, see those delicate threads of the purple amoret, with its flood of anthers that are nearly yellow; the snowy pyramids of the meadow-sweet, the green tresses of the wild oats, the slender plumes of the agrostis, which we call wind-ear; roseate hopes, decking love's earliest dream and standing forth against the gray surroundings.
Our domestic animals, that have some liberty, are also possessed of some peculiar traditional knowledge: dogs and cats have been forced into each other's society, though naturally animals of a very different kind, and have hence learned from each other to eat dog's grass (agrostis canina) when they are sick, to promote vomiting.