barn millet
- noun
- Because barn millet grows quickly, it can become a troublesome weed in cultivated fields.
Examples
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Some farmers harvest barn millet as a low-cost source of hay.
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The cattle grazed freely on the field of barn millet during the summer months.
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Farmers often struggle with barn millet in their fields.
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The barn millet grows quickly in warm weather.
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Because barn millet grows quickly, it can become a troublesome weed in cultivated fields.
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The cattle grazed freely on the field of barn millet during the summer months.
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Some farmers harvest barn millet as a low-cost source of hay.
Synonyms
A common weed grass that farmers sometimes cut for hay or feed animals
A tall grass grown for grain used for food, animal feed and making beer
A grass that grows in dry areas and farmers grow for animal feed or grain
A common wild grass that grows in wet farm fields and that animals sometimes eat
A plant that grows in dry regions and has seeds used to make a somewhat bitter flour
A coarse grass that grows each year as a common weed worldwide and is sometimes used for animal feed
A rough grass that grows in dry places and is grown for grain and animal feed
A rough grass people grow each year for its seeds and animal feed
A coarse grass grown each year for grain and to feed animals
A grass grown for its seeds and animal feed
A plant with yellow grains and large hanging seed heads grown for food and animal feed
A small grain plant grown for food and animal feed
A grass that grows once a year for its grain and is used as animal feed
A rough grass grown each year for grain or animal feed that grows well in dry soil
A tall grass with thick round seed heads that farmers grow for grain and animal food
A tall grass grown in dry areas for its edible grain, animal feed, and brewing
A grass with orange to red grains on long rough spikes grown for animal feed
An annual grass grown for hay in the southern United States
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'millet' names a small-seeded grass and 'barn' modifies it to indicate a variety or millet associated with farms/storage, so a B1 learner can infer it refers to a kind of coarse grass used/found around barns for hay or grazing. This place/modifier + noun pattern is regular in English and cross-linguistically common, making the MWE transparent from its constituents.
Etymology
Barn millet may come from the sight of rough millet growing beside a farm's barn, where farmers used it as cheap 'hay' or left it as a 'weed'. So the name now means a coarse grass often used for 'hay' or seen as a 'weed'.