ˈmoor-grass
[f. moor n.1 + grass.]
1. Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia.
| 1597 Gerarde Herbal iii. clv. 1366 It is called in English Sunne deaw,..in the North parts Red rot,..and in Yorkeshire Moore grass. 1674 J. Josselyn Voy. New Eng. 80 Rosa-solis, Sun-dew, moor-grass. 1749 W. Ellis Compl. Syst. Sheep, etc. iii. v. 321 Now this Moor-Grass, in the Parish of Wing [Buckinghamshire], they call Rosa-Solis, as it is distinguished by Shepherds from other Grasses. |
2. Sc. Silver-weed, Potentilla anserina.
| 1777 Lightfoot Flora Scot. I. 268 Potentilla anserina..Moor-Grass. Scotis. |
3. A grass of the genus Molinia, esp. M. cærulea, blue moor-grass.
| 1749 W. Ellis Compl. Syst. Sheep 321 This moor-grass..they call Rosa-Solis, as it is distinguished by Shepherds from other Grasses, who know it by its three-square Leaf, Rapier-like. 1799 J. Hull Brit. Flora i. 21 Sesleria cærulea,..Blue Moor-grass. 1866 Treas. Bot. s.v. Grass. 1950 W. H. Pearsall Mountains & Moorlands ix. 179 The moor-grass may be found growing on oxygen-poor peats with a moderately high salt content and low acidity. 1972 Country Life 13 Jan. 104/1 There was a telling use of..a cultivated form of the extremely common purple moor grass. |
4. The cotton-grass, Eriophorum angustifolium (Britten & Holland).
5. gen. A grass growing on a moor.
| 1900 Archæol. æliana XXII. 80 Black-faced sheep, which maintain a spare existence on the heather and moor-grasses. |