Dictionary

penny-grass en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɛniˌɡɹæs/ (General-American)
• /ˈpɛniˌɡɹɑːs/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From Middle English peny gras; equivalent to penny + grass.

Meanings

1. (obsolete, uncountable) yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor or Rhinanthus major (syn. Rhinanthus crista-galli)).
   • Plants reported killed by copper sulphate solutions: Wild mustard, wild radish, wild barley, penny grass (if young), shepherds' purse , wild buckwheat[…] 1904, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Division of Zoology, Zoological Bulletin, volume 2, page 45:
   • Nor taint-worm ſhall infect the yeaning herds / Nor penny-graſs, nor ſpearwort's poiſ'nous leaf. 1757, John Dyer, “Book I”, in The Fleece: A Poem […] , London: R. and J. Dodsley, page 40:
   • Another Graſs is called Penny-Graſs; it groweth low, cloſe to the Earth, in mooriſh Grounds; it hath a Leaf as broad as Twopence , but never beareth a Flower. 1670, J. B., The Epitome of the Art of Husbandry […] , London: Benjamin Billingſley, page 180:

Forms