Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
orchard grass

orchard grass

6.1
A strong grass grown for hay to feed farm animals
  • noun
  • /ˈɔrʧərd ɡræs/
  • US
translation icon : pasto de huerto
  • Farmers rely on orchard grass as a primary forage for their cattle, due to its high nutritional value.
  • orchard grass and clover

Examples

  • Perhaps his feet made a noise in the orchard grass, or maybe she caught his movement out of the corner of her eye.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We sowed clover and orchard grass for the livestock, but not much of it took hold.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Researchers in other regions have found that silvopastures with moderate shade had higher yields of tall fescue and orchard grass than heavily shaded pastures had.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The lush orchard grass in the pasture provides an essential food source for the grazing livestock.

  • To improve the quality of the hay, we decided to plant orchard grass alongside clover in our fields.

Synonyms

Dactylis glomerata
vsorchard grass
  • Specialized
8.6

A common strong grass grown for hay and animal feed

has identical meaning but is the common name rather than the scientific form
cocksfoot
vsorchard grass
  • UK
9.9

A tall grass that grows in clumps and farmers grow for hay and animal feed

describes a stout broader-built perennial rather than a tufted form
Dactylis
vsorchard grass
  • Specialized
9.4

A grass that comes back every year and is grown to feed farm animals often called orchard grass

refers to the single stout perennial species rather than the whole genus

Surface Forms

orchard grass singular
orchard grasses plural

Morphology

orchard + grass

The compound is a straightforward noun+noun composition: 'orchard' (land with fruit trees) + 'grass' (grasses) yields a kind of grass associated with orchards or grown on such land. Although it is a specific botanical name, the meaning is directly derivable from the constituents and follows a common, cross-linguistically transparent compounding pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand it.

Etymology

Orchard grass probably got its name from the simple idea of grass grown in or beside an orchard, a 'place with fruit trees'. Farmers used this strong grass for 'hay' and 'pasture', so the name came to mean the kind of grass grown for animal 'feed'.