Dictionary

agrostis en · NOUN

Etymology

From New Latin agrōstis, via the genus name taxonomic name Agrostis.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Any grass of the genus Agrostis of bentgrasses.
   • 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. 1891, Katharine Prescott Wormeley, The Lily of the Valley, translation of original by Honore de Balzac:
   • The ground is littered with fallen trunks that lie crossed and recrossed like storm-lodged wheat; and besides this close forest of pines, the rich moraine soil supports a luxuriant growth of ribbon-leaved grasses--bromus, triticum, calamagrostis, agrostis, etc., which rear their handsome spikes and panicles above your waist. 1894, John Muir, The Mountains of California:

Forms