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oat(1) (iou)



oat noun. .
[Old English ate, pl. atan, peculiar to English and of unkn. origin. App. oat (unlike other cereal names) denoted primarily an individual grain: cf. groats.]
a. In pl., the grains of a hardy cereal plant of the genus Avena, usu. A. sativa, used as food for people (in porridge etc.) and animals, esp. horses; sing. (rare), one such grain. OE.
rolled oats: see ROLL verb.
b. (A particular kind or strain of) the plant yielding this grain. Usu. in pl., this plant as a crop. ME.
Any of various wild grasses related to or resembling the cultivated oat. OE.
false oat a common grass of hedgerows, Arrhenatherum elatius. wild oat a cornfield weed, Avena fatua, resembling the cultivated oat but with the florets hairy at the base. yellow oat a grass of pasture-land, Trisetum flavescens, with small golden spikelets.
A shepherd's pipe made of a straw from an oat-plant. poet. M17.
In pl. Sexual gratification. Chiefly in get one's oats, have one's oats. slang. E20.
Phrases: be off one's oats colloq. have no appetite for food. feel one's oats colloq. be lively or (US) self-important. wild oats youthful follies or excesses committed before settling down (chiefly in sow one's wild oats).
Comb.: oat burner N. Amer. colloq. a horse; oatcake a thin unleavened cake similar to a biscuit, made with oatmeal; oat cell Medicine a small oval cell with little cytoplasm and a densely staining nucleus, characteristic of carcinoma of the bronchus; oat-celled adjective (Medicine) containing oat cells; oat-grass any of several grasses resembling the cultivated oat; esp. (a) (in full tall oat-grass) = false oat above; (b) either of two grasses of calcareous soils, Helictotrichon pubescens (in full downy oat-grass), and H. pratense (in full meadow oat-grass); oat-plant the plant that yields oats.
oater noun (chiefly US) = horse opera s.v. HORSE noun M20.