smooth crabgrass
- noun
- /smuːð ˈkræbˌɡræs/
- Specialized
:
pasto cangrejo liso
- The lawn was overrun with smooth crabgrass by midsummer.
Examples
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Early spring is the best time to tackle smooth crabgrass before it takes over the lawn.
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Gardeners often struggle to remove smooth crabgrass from their flowerbeds.
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Early detection and removal can help prevent smooth crabgrass from spreading.
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The garden is overrun with smooth crabgrass.
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Have you noticed the smooth crabgrass in the lawn?
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Gardeners often struggle to control smooth crabgrass because it spreads quickly.
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By midsummer, the yard was filled with smooth crabgrass that was hard to eliminate.
Synonyms
5
3.4
A common lawn weed with stems that grow along the ground and root easily
A low-growing summer grass often seen as a weed that spreads by seed and by roots at stem joints
A grass that spreads quickly and grows as a common lawn weed
A grass with stems that spread along the ground and root, often a weed in lawns
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition: 'smooth' describes a property of the noun 'crabgrass', so the meaning is simply a type or variety of crabgrass with an even/non-rough surface. This is a literal, descriptive combination (not idiomatic or metaphorical) and follows common cross-linguistic nominal modification patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily understand it.
Etymology
Smooth crabgrass: The name smooth crabgrass comes from the plant's look: its stems spread out like a crab's legs and the leaves feel very smooth, so people used crab and grass with smooth to describe it. That's why the name now means 'a low, spreading weed' that can take over lawns.