Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
get to grass en · VERB
Meanings
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To leave a mine and get to the surface, particularly to escape an underground disaster.
But love was no protection in the terror and the din
When the island gave its answer, the day the sea broke in
I heard the shouted warning, I tried to get to grass
But the ladders jammed with miners, there was no room to pass
I never was a sailor but I met a sailor's death
Ninety feet below the ocean, I drew that dying breath
2003, Tom Bliss, song “The Silverlode of Sark”, from album Downhill All the WayMen working at deep mines started work after a long and tiring descent, and near the end of their shift they held back on their effort, so they would have enough energy left to “get to grass.”
1991, Larry Lankton, “The Underground: Change and Continuity”, in Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, chapter 2, page 33:“Come along. No fear of the water coming in, or I'd soon say let's get to grass.”
1896, George Manville Fenn, Sappers and Miners; The Flood beneath the Sea, chapter 42, “Mining Matters”
Forms