| Library / English Dictionary |
OAT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Seed of the annual grass Avena sativa (spoken of primarily in the plural as 'oats')
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("oat" is a kind of...):
cereal; food grain; grain (foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses)
Domain usage:
plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)
Holonyms ("oat" is a part of...):
Avena sativa; cereal oat (widely cultivated in temperate regions for its edible grains)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Annual grass of Europe and North Africa; grains used as food and fodder (referred to primarily in the plural: 'oats')
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("oat" is a kind of...):
cereal; cereal grass (grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "oat"):
Avena sativa; cereal oat (widely cultivated in temperate regions for its edible grains)
Avena fatua; wild oat; wild oat grass (common in meadows and pastures)
Avena barbata; slender wild oat (oat of southern Europe and southwestern Asia)
animated oat; Avene sterilis; wild red oat (Mediterranean oat held to be progenitor of modern cultivated oat)
Holonyms ("oat" is a member of...):
Avena; genus Avena (oats)
Context examples:
Let the boys be boys, the longer the better, and let the young men sow their wild oats if they must.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He afterwards showed me a wisp of hay, and a fetlock full of oats; but I shook my head, to signify that neither of these were food for me.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
They milk their cows, reap their oats, and do all the work which requires hands, in the same manner.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The land was divided by long rows of trees, not regularly planted, but naturally growing; there was great plenty of grass, and several fields of oats.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
They dined in the best room, and had oats boiled in milk for the second course, which the old horse ate warm, but the rest cold.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
With tools made of these flints, they likewise cut their hay, and reap their oats, which there grow naturally in several fields; the Yahoos draw home the sheaves in carriages, and the servants tread them in certain covered huts to get out the grain, which is kept in stores.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
They have a kind of tree, which at forty years old loosens in the root, and falls with the first storm: it grows very straight, and being pointed like stakes with a sharp stone (for the Houyhnhnms know not the use of iron), they stick them erect in the ground, about ten inches asunder, and then weave in oat straw, or sometimes wattles, between them.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I was ordered to speak the few words I understood; and while they were at dinner, the master taught me the names for oats, milk, fire, water, and some others, which I could readily pronounce after him, having from my youth a great facility in learning languages.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
On this festival, the servants drive a herd of Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for a repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are immediately driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Here they inquire into the state and condition of the several districts; whether they abound or be deficient in hay or oats, or cows, or Yahoos; and wherever there is any want (which is but seldom) it is immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
