crab grass


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Related to crab grass: quack grass, summer grass

crab·grass

or crab grass  (krăb′grăs′)
n.
Any of certain annual grasses of the genus Digitaria, having prostrate stems that root at the nodes and widely naturalized in North America as weeds in lawns and agricultural fields.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

crab grass

or

crabgrass

n
(Plants) any of several coarse weedy grasses of the genus Digitaria, which grow in warm regions and tend to displace other grasses in lawns
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

crab′ grass`


n.
a weed grass, Digitaria sanguinales, that roots vigorously from the lower stem joints and grows in thick patches on lawns and uncultivated areas.
[1590–1600]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.crab grass - grasses with creeping stems that root freelycrab grass - grasses with creeping stems that root freely; a pest in lawns
grass - narrow-leaved green herbage: grown as lawns; used as pasture for grazing animals; cut and dried as hay
crowfoot grass, Dactyloctenium aegypticum, Egyptian grass - a creeping grass with spikes like fingers
Digitaria, genus Digitaria - crab grass; finger grass
Digitaria sanguinalis, hairy finger grass, large crabgrass - a European forage grass grown for hay; a naturalized weed in United States
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
In 2000, Sports Illustrated wrote,"Like crab grass invading someone's lawn, walk-off has taken root in sports lingo and gotten out of control." Seventeen years later, it has spread even farther.
Usually crab grass or weeds grow there, mowed every now and then to keep the area looking neat.
The grass may always be greener on the other side, but it could come with crab grass and poison ivy too.
Dr Gibson said that whatever method is used on pubic hair - razor blades, electric shavers, tweezers, waxing, depilatories, electrolysis - "hair, like crab grass, always grows back and eventually wins."
Grasses took the cake among the top 10 worst weeds in home gardens with four representatives: crab grass, Bermuda grass, quack grass and Johnson grass.
The concept of the value of cooperative behavior is taking root, and once rooted, it will slowly, like crab grass, spread.--Robert Kerekes, Lancaster, California
Talk of term limits starts to become as thick as crab grass when a large segment of the population gets completely fed up with the way Congress as a whole is doing business.
Let's just be thankful that Kelley didn't sing lead on this one, because that would have been as creepy as crab grass.
He asked us to step inside, but your mother wouldn't budge, took the news on the sidewalk with a fist full of crab grass. I drove through a lightning storm to the green bridge we used to fish below.
Johnson Grass Sorghum halepense: This weed is like crab grass on steroids.
When the trunks of the old snag trees began to melt in the haze, I tossed my bag back into the car and came home, thinking, so that's what they've been talking about with all these good-will grassgrower shucks on TV lately, and those grassgrower fairs and public relations gigs on afternoon talk shows, trying to convince us that clean grass seed is a good swap for clean summer skies, trying to trade our air to some housing tract contractor in New Jersey for the reassurance that he won't have to bother to weed his own crab grass.