penny grass
- noun
- US
:
pennycress
- You can identify penny grass by its distinctive round seed pods.
Examples
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Farmers often consider penny grass a troublesome weed in their fields.
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The abandoned lot was overgrown with penny grass by early summer.
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The penny grass grew abundantly in the field.
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Farmers often struggle with penny grasses invading their crops.
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The farmer had to remove penny grass from his fields to improve crop yield.
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In early spring, the garden was filled with penny grass, creating a foul smell.
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After heavy rains, the penny grass spread rapidly across the neglected area.
Synonyms
1
9.0
A smelly weed with round flat seed pods
A wild plant with a strong smell and round flat seed pods
A common weed from Europe and Asia with round flat seed pods and a strong unpleasant smell
A small plant with white flowers and flat round seed pods
A weed from Europe and Asia with a strong smell and round flat seed pods now common in North America
A plant with a bad smell and flat round seed pods that spread easily
A smelly weed with round flat seed pods from Europe and Asia now growing in North America
Surface Forms
Morphology
penny + grass
The compound 'penny' + 'grass' transparently signals a plant associated with 'penny' (likely referring to coin‑like shape/size) and 'grass' (a plant), so a learner can infer it is a kind of plant named for a penny‑like feature. However, the precise botanical sense (a specific Eurasian weed, its seed‑pod shape and foul smell) is not fully predictable from the constituents, so full meaning requires lexical knowledge.
Etymology
Penny grass may come from the plant's round, flat seed pods that look like tiny coins or 'pennies' on the stems. The word penny points to the coin-like pods and grass was used for any low plant, so the name came to mean that small weed with a bad smell today.