▪ I. oat, n.
(əʊt)
Usually in pl. oats (əʊts). Forms: sing. 1 áte, ǽte, 4–7 ote, (5 hote), 6–7 oate, 6– Sc. ait, 7 dial. eat, 8– oat. pl. α. 1 átan, 3 aten, 3–4 oten, 4 ooten, 5 otyn. β. 4–7 otes, 5 otys, otis, (hotys), 5–6 ootes, -is, 6 ottes, (wot(t)es), 6–7 oates, 6– oats; Sc. 5 atis, etes, aitis, aittes, 8– aits.
[OE. áte, pl. átan, wk. fem., not found in the cognate langs., and of obscure origin. The general Teutonic name is OTeut. *haƀron- and its representatives: see haver.
Oat differs from other names of cereals, ancient or modern, as wheat, barley (bigg, beer), rye, rice, maize, millet, and from its own synonym haver, in that, while these are (like dust, sand, snow), names of substances or things in the mass, the collective form of which is singular, they having in ordinary language no plural, oat is an individual singular, the collective or mass sense of which has to be expressed by the plural, e.g. ‘Is the crop rye or oats?’, ‘wheat, barley, and oats are cereals’. Comparing this with beans, peasen, potatoes, and other names of similar grammatical form, it may be inferred that primarily oat was not the plant or its produce in the mass, but denoted an individual grain; cf. groat with its collective pl. groats. This may point to oats being eaten originally in the grains, not, like wheat and barley, in the form of meal or flour. But the scanty early evidence is not sufficient to show this.]
1. a. pl. The grains of a hardy cereal (see sense 2) forming an important article of food in many countries for men and also a chief food of horses; usually collectively, as a species of grain.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 84 ᵹenim bean mela oþþe ætena, oððe beres. ? a 1100 Ibid. III. 292 Nim atena gratan. c 1126 O.E. Chron. anno 1124 (Laud. MS.) Man sælde..þæt acer sæd aten, þæt is feower sed læpas to feower scillingas. c 1205 Lay. 29256 Þer biforen he gon ȝeoten draf and chaf and aten. a 1225 Ancr. R. 312 Me nimeð et vuel dettur oten uor hweate. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 45 A tayle of Ten quarter oten. 1393 Ibid. C. ix. 306 A fewe croddes and creyme, and a cake of otes. c 1500 Melusine xxi. 127 That ootis shuld be gyuen to the horses. 1508 Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 133 Thow skaffis and beggis mair beir and aitis. c 1530 Househ. Acc. Hampton Crt. in Law Hampton C. (1885) I. 367, 4 boshells of wotes at 4{supd}. the boshell. 1601 F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edw. II (1876) 14 Hay and otes, litter and shoing and other necessaries for iiij horses. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Ailments, etc. i. 251 Oats, cleansing, resolving, and pectoral. 1857 E. Acton Eng. Bread-Bk. i. vi. 75 In the south of England oats are not employed for bread, but only for feeding horses. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 15 Nov. 2/1 With..two camp kettles and packets of tea and Quaker Oats..we made a great feast of tea and porridge. |
b. sing. A single grain of oats.
rare.
| 1677 Grew Anat. Fruits iii. i. §11 A Cluster of other little Bags, about the bigness of an Oate. 1780 A. Young Tour Irel. I. 288 Nor would the horses touch an oat, while they could get carrots. |
2. The cereal plant
Avena sativa, which yields this grain, cultivated in numerous varieties in all cool climates.
a. Usually in
pl., collectively, as a crop.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10110 Whete corne wyl nat prykke, As otes dowun, or barlykke. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 664/13 Hec auena, otys. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §14 There be .iii. maner of otes, that is to saye, redde otes, blacke otes, and roughe otes. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xiii. 467 The pilde Otes are sowen in the gardens of Herboristes. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iv. 61 Ceres..thy riche Leas of Wheate, Rye, Barley, Fetches, Oates and Pease. 1671 H. M. tr. Erasm. Colloq. 181 Nor do they sell it [hay] much cheaper than oats itself. 1786 Burns Sc. Drink iii, Let..Aits set up their awnie horn. 1843 J. A. Smith Product. Farming (ed. 2) 105 Upon the same field which will yield only one harvest of wheat, two successive crops of barley may be raised, and three of oats. |
b. The singular,
oat, is used either to individualize the plant or a particular variety or sort, or to denote a single plant (but this would ordinarily be called an
oat-plant).
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xvii. (Tollem. MS.) Ote is an herbe, and þe seed þerof acordeþ to use of men and of hors. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 372/2 Ote, or havur corne, Avena. 1620 Venner Via Recta ii. 40 It receiueth a singular cooling qualitie from the Oate. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece iii. 423 There are two sorts, the white or Polish Oat..and the black Oat. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. i. 17 The oat is the hardiest of all cereal plants. |
3. sing. and collect. pl. Applied to wild species of
Avena (called also
oat-grass), several of which are indigenous to the British Isles;
esp. the
wild oat,
Avena fatua, a tall grass resembling the cultivated oat (of which it is perhaps the wild original), a frequent weed in cornfields, and noted for its long twisted awn, which makes an excellent hygrometer;
false oat, the Oat-like Grass,
Arrhenatherum.
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 599 Lolium, atae. a 1100 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 480/28 Zizania, atan, oððe lasor. c 1475 Pict. Voc. ibid. 785/13 Hec avicula, wild hote. 1551 Turner Herbal i. E vj, Ther are ij. kyndes of otes: the one is called in English comonly, otes: and the other..wild otes. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xiii. 467 Also there is a barren Ote, of some called the purre Otes, of others wilde Otes..The Purwottes or wilde Otes, commeth vp in many places amongst wheate and without sowing. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 229 And oats unblest, and darnel domineers. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xiii. (1794) 141 Bearded Oat grass, vulgarly called Wild Oats. 1806 J. Galpine Brit. Bot. 40 Wild oat or haver. 1835 Hooker Brit. Flora 53 A. fatua, wild Oat..A. strigosa, bristle-pointed Oat. |
| attrib. 1676 Phil. Trans. XI. 651 The commodiousness of this kind of Hygroscope in comparison of those made of wild Oat-beards. a 1774 Goldsm. Surv. Exp. Philos. (1776) II. 30 An easier and still a cheaper [hygrometer]..may be made by a wild oat-beard, which lengthens with dry weather and contracts with moisture. |
4. a. Phr.
to sow one's wild oats: to commit youthful excesses or follies; to spend early life in dissipation or dissolute courses (usually implying subsequent reform). (In reference to the folly and mischief of sowing wild oats instead of good grain.)
| 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. ii. 99 That wilfull and vnruly age, which lacketh rypenes and discretion, and (as wee saye) hath not sowed all theyr wyeld Oates. 1583 T. Watson Centurie of Love lxxxvii, I finde that all my wildest Oates are sowne. 1604 Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 9 You ha travelled enough now..to sowe your wilde oates. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton ix. (1840) 169 Thus ended my first harvest of wild oats. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. vii. (1866) 125 A leniency which often talks thus:..A young man must sow his wild oats and reform. 1892 Pall Mall G. 12 Nov. 2/3 The wild oats, fully sown, are a veritable road to ruin. |
† b. Hence
wild oats, a name for a dissipated or dissolute young fellow; a ‘wild’ young man.
Obs.| a 1564 Becon Nosegay Wks. (1843) 204 The foolish desire of certain light brains and wild oats, which are altogether given to newfangleness. 1602 How Chuse Good Wife (N.), Well, go to, wild oats! spendthrift! prodigal! 1605 Lond. Prodigal ii. i, For this wild oats here, young Flowerdale, I will not judge. |
c. attrib. Pertaining to the ‘sowing of wild oats’.
| 1881 Pop. Sci. Monthly XIX. 153 Girls, it seems, have to pass through a millinery climacteric, as their brothers through a wild-oats period. |
d. to feel one's oats, to be lively; to feel important, to display one's self-importance.
colloq. (
orig. U.S.).
| 1831 Boston Even. Transcript 22 Dec. 1/1 Whether the pony felt his oats,..He took a frightful canter. 1833 A. Lawrence Diary & Corr. (1855) 126 We both ‘feel our oats’ and our youth. 1843 T. C. Haliburton Attaché 1st Ser. II. 157 You know that, and you feel your oats, too, as well as any one. 1869 P. T. Barnum Struggles & Triumphs i. 33 My father..installed me as clerk in this country store. Of course I ‘felt my oats’. 1897 C. M. Flandrau Harvard Episodes 85, I suppose he was feeling his oats when he captained his class eleven. 1959 Listener 5 Nov. 770/1 The new influences and pressures within a colony that was ‘feeling its oats’. 1971 D. Lees Rainbow Conspiracy i. 17 The Manchester circulation is nudging the one and a half million a day mark and they are beginning to feel their oats. |
e. off one's oats colloq., off one's food.
| 1890 Kipling in Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Aug. 254 I'm a bit restless and off my oats. 1898 Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. (Red Page), The horse is a power in Australia, and a few choice expressions spring from horses..out of collar aptly describes out of work; off his oats, sickness or state of offishness. 1930 Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves! iv. 98 The poor kid, who's quite off her oats about him. 1949 D. M. Davin Roads from Home ii. ii. 99 What's the matter, John? Off your oats this morning? 1977 J. Fleming Every Inch a Lady i. i. 5 It's not like to put me off me oats..but it's been a nasty day. |
f. one's oats, sexual gratification.
slang.| 1923 J. Manchon Le Slang 209 To have one's oats, faire des bêtises avec une femme, courir la gueuse. 1941 Baker Austral. Slang 50 Oats from (a woman), get one's, to coit with a woman. 1961 X. Herbert Soldiers' Women 265 There's nothing makes a hot-shot sheik like that so mad as being asked to pay for his oats. 1965 W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 188, I was kissing her excitedly and passionately. You're doin' O.K., Cookie, you're gonna get your oats tonight for sure, I thought to myself. 1968 A. Diment Bang Bang Birds v. 65 Despite her lovely body it was her face that had me hooked... I like to watch something pretty..when collecting my oats. 1976 P. Hill Hunters vii. 90 She wouldn't let you have your oats... You wanted to go to bed with her..she wouldn't have it. 1978 J. Wainwright Jury People xxxvi. 108 This wife he was lumbered with. Okay—he loved her... But, even he wanted his oats, occasionally. He was human. |
5. transf. (
poetic). A pipe made of an oaten straw, as a pastoral instrument of music. [After L.
avena.]
| 1637 Milton Lycidas 88 That strain I heard was of a higher mood: But now my Oate proceeds. 1648 Herrick Hesper., Beucolick, That thou shalt swear, my pipe do's raigne Over thine oat, as soveraigne. a 1876 M. Collins Greek Idyl iv. Poems (1886) 82 While an old shepherd with his oat Pipes to the autumn breezes. |
6. oats and chaff Rhyming slang, a footpath.
| 1857 ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 14 Oats and chaff,..footpath. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 82/1 Oats and chaff, footpath. |
7. Comb. a. General combinations: simple
attrib., as
oat-beard (see
beard n. 6),
oat-bran,
oat-dust,
oat-grain,
oat-hull (see
hull n.1 1),
oat-husk,
oat-stalk,
oat-straw,
oat stubble; made from oat-grains, as
oat-ale,
oat-beer,
oat-bread,
oat-flour,
-groats,
oat-malt; containing or carrying oats, as
oat-bag,
oat-cart,
oat-field; objective and
obj. gen., as
oat-bruiser,
oat-consumer,
oat-eater,
oat-importer,
oat-sheller,
oat-tying;
oat-bearing,
oat-growing,
oat-producing adjs.; instrumental, as
oat(s)-fed adj.; similative, as
oat-shaped adj.| 1693 Humours Town 5, I had rather a' been drinking *Oat-Ale at a Cake-house. 1886 C. E. Doble Hearne's Collect. (O.H.S.) II. 449 A draught of oat-ale. |
| 1851 A. O. Hall Manhattaner 5 It was a modest commercial plain..with..bits of machinery, and ploughs, and *oat bags, and hay bales. 1882 Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 565/4, 2 canvas *oat bags at /3½. |
| 1676, a 1774 *Oat-beard [see sense 3]. |
| 1893 Duke of Argyll Unseen Found. Soc. xi. 337 Piece of *oat-bearing land. |
| 1705 Hearne Collect. 13 Oct. (O.H.S.) I. 55 He mentions Malt & *Oat Beer. |
| 1900 Daily News 26 Apr. 5/6 Porridge made from *oat-bran husks. |
| 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 456 *Otebread nourisheth but little, and is not very agreable to mankind. 1780 A. Young Tour Irel. I. 213 Their diet is milk, potatoes, and oat bread. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 216 Attached to toast and water, which he made with oat-bread boiled in the water. |
| 1898 Daily News 8 Feb. 3/5, I saw a bean crusher, a chaff cutter and an *oat bruiser. |
| 1812 P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 45 We observed his people at *oat cart. |
| 1805 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 348 *Oat-dust from the mill..makes part of the mixture. |
| a 1668 Davenant Vacation Lond. Poems (1673) 291 And white *Oate-eater that does dwell; In Stable small at Sign of Bell. |
| 1870 R. Broughton Red as Rose I. 190 A young *oats-fed mare. |
| 1900 Daily News 4 May 5/4 A glance at these rations shows the important part which *oat flour plays in all of them. |
| 1881 Darwin Veg. Mould ii. 115 In one of the chambers there was a decayed *oat-grain, with its husk. |
| c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 20 Bray þen with wyne, With *ote grotis, and whyte brede eke. |
| 1892 E. Reeves Homeward Bound 82 Invercargill..is our chief *oat-growing country. |
| 1607 Markham Caval. v. (1617) 11 A fewe Pease or Beanes mixt with *oate-hulls, which are taken from oates when you make Oate-meale. |
| 1830 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 253 The worts were allowed to filter through the stratum of *oat-husks and heath. |
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. (J.), In Kent they brew with one half *oatmalt and the other half barleymalt. |
| 1893 Duke of Argyll Unseen Found. Soc. xi. 337 *Oat-producing acres. |
| 1845 Athenæum 1 Mar. 222 The *oat-shaped or nucleated body. 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 372 Stone..very small and flat, about ½ inch long, oat-shaped. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 554/1 Black oat⁓shaped worms. |
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6222/10 Robert Wadford, late of Preston..*Oat-Shiller. |
| 1887 Bowen Virg. Ecl. v. 34 The unfruitful darnel, the *oatstalks barren. |
| a 1650 D. Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1842–9) VI. 27 A scheaffe of *oat straw was sold for fourtie shillings in Edinburgh. 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents: Agric. 1849 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 380 Getting no other food in winter but a scanty supply of oat-straw. 1859 A. Cary Pict. Country Life i. 7 [He] lay..with a bundle of oat⁓straw for his pillow. 1884 T. Speedy Sport Highl. iii. 29 Their bed..should consist of clean oat-straw. |
| 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 168 The *oat-stubbles are cleaned immediately after harvest. |
b. Special combinations:
oat burner N. Amer. colloq., a horse;
oat cell Med., a small oval cell with little cytoplasm and an oval, densely staining nucleus which is characteristic of a type of carcinoma of the lung (formerly regarded as a sarcoma);
freq. attrib. in
oat-cell carcinoma,
oat cell tumour, etc.; hence
oat-celled a., containing such cells;
oat-fowl, a local name of the Snow Bunting;
oat-grass, a grass of the genus
Avena; sometimes also applied to those of some allied genera, as
Arrhenatherum,
Bromus;
oat-hair, the hairs or villi of the grain of the oat;
oat-hay = oaten hay: see
oaten 3;
oatland, land on which oats are grown;
oat-like a., like or resembling an oat;
oat-like grass,
Arrhenatherum avenaceum, considered by Linnæus an
Avena;
oat-mill, a mill for grinding oats (in
quot. 1837 humorously applied to a horse's mouth);
† oatmonger, a dealer in oats;
oat(s opera = oater;
oat-pipe,
oat-reed, a musical instrument made of an oat-straw;
oat-ridder, a sieve or riddle for sifting oats;
oat-seed,
† (
a) the season for sowing oats (
obs.); (
b) the seed or grain of the oat; hence
oat-seed bird, a local name of the Grey Wagtail;
oat-stone (see
quot.);
oat-thistle, Turner's name for the cotton-thistle,
Onopordum Acanthium.
| 1941 Sun (Baltimore) 21 July 11/4 There isn't a galloper in the lot who can say ‘I'm the boss’, so your milkman's *oat burner might do just as well as any of 'em. 1952 Daily News (N.Y.) 20 Aug. C 11/4 When the time comes..that even an oat-burner must sport a tax stamp on its stem or stern. 1973 B. Broadfoot Ten Lost Years v. 50 Them oatburners never broke down. |
| 1903 W. S. L. Barlow Elem. Path. Anat. & Histol. i. ix. 190 (heading) *Oat cell Sarcoma. 1926 Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. XXIX. 244 In obvious carcinomata of the lung ‘oat cells’ have been found in addition to the more readily recognisable carcinoma cells. 1956 Mayer & Maier Pulmonary Carcinoma iv. 96 Among anaplastic tumors belong the ‘oat cell’ carcinomas, called ‘reserve cell’ by some. 1957 A. I. Spriggs Cytol. of Effusions vi. 24 One of the most characteristic types of malignant cell is the oat-cell, so named after its appearance in histological sections. 1966 Wright & Symmers Systemic Path. I. x. 418/1 The finding of tubules in ‘oat-cell’ tumours..should not affect the histological diagnosis. 1972 Brit. Jrnl. Dis. Chest LXVI. 164 Oat cell carcinomas have a more sinister prognosis. |
| 1926 Jrnl. Path. & Bacteriol. XXIX. 244 The so-called ‘*oat-celled Sarcoma’ of the posterior mediastinum is a medullary carcinoma of the bronchi. 1948 R. A. Willis Path. Tumours xix. 369 ‘Oat-celled’ or spindle-celled structure..is common in bronchial carcinoma. |
| 1793 Statist. Acc. Scot. VII. 461 A small bird, rather less than a sparrow, resorts here in winter..and is called by the people here *oat-fowls, because they prey on the oats. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 72 Snow bunting..Oatfowl. |
| 1742 Cole Eng.-Lat. Dict., *Oat⁓gavel, avenae vectigales. |
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xlvi. 505 Bycause of the likenesse it hath with Otes..we may call it in Englishe, Hauer, or *Ote grasse. 1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 320 Oat-grass, Bromus. 1832 Tennyson May Queen ii. vii, The summer airs blow cool On the oat-grass and the sword-grass, and the bulrush in the pool. 1866 Treas. Bot. 93 The tall Oat-grass, A[rrhenatherum] avenaceum..in many instances forms a very considerable portion of good meadows and pastures. |
| 1847 Wilson Rural Cycl. I. 623 Other kinds of intestinal calculi..consist principally of the filamentous portion of the grain of oats..and are sometimes known by the popular designation of *oat-hair calculi. |
| 1892 Cradock (S. Afr.) Register 4 Mar. 2 *Oathay, {per} 100 lbs., 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. 1899 [see oaten 3]. |
| 1706 Phillips, Oat-thistle or *Oatland-thistle. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 104 Multitudes of crowding beans; And flighty oatlands of a lighter hue. |
| 1835 Hooker Brit. Flora I. 42 Arrhenatherum, *Oat-like grass. |
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 337, I was shewed an *Oat-Mill, that husk't the Oats and winnow'd them, and then ground them to meal. 1837–40 Haliburton Clockm. (1862) 497 Hold up your old oatmill, and see if you can snuff the stable at minister's. |
| 1327 in Riley Mem. (1868) 167 Denis le *Otemonger. |
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §608/9 Western picture,..*oats opera. 1947 Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch 2 May 10/1 Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and other oat opera stars. |
| 1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 73 All in a fine *oate pipe these sweete songs lustilie chaunting. |
| 1513 Douglas æneis i. Prol. 511, I the ylk wmquhile that in the small *ait reid Tonit my sang. |
| 1743 Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 254 Some Maltsters, to improve the small Sort of Welch Coal, sift it thro' an *Oat-Ridder. |
| 1637–50 J. Row Hist. Kirk (1842) p. xxv, The journay was farr, and it wes the haitt of thair *eat-seid. 1900 Daily News 4 July 5/6 Distribution of oatseeds for stable forage. |
| 1864 Atkinson Prov. Names Birds, *Oat-seed-bird, Ray's wagtail. 1885 Swainson Prov. Names Birds 44 Grey wagtail (Motacilla melanope)..Oat seed bird (Yorkshire). |
| 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. III. 855 These concretions comprise the ‘*oat-stones’ or avenoliths, which are composed of the indigestible fragments of oat-meal. |
| 1548 Turner Names of Herbes 8 Acanthium..maye be called in englishe *otethistle, because the seedes are lyke vnto rough otes. |
▪ II. oat, v. U.S. (
əʊt)
[f. prec. n.: cf. corn v. 6.] trans. To feed (a horse) with oats. Also
absol.| 1732 B. Lynde Diary 9 May (1880) 26 Next morning..dined at Hampton;..thence to Greenland, where oated, and for 2 horses and drink, 2s. 1741 Ibid. 27 Oct. 121 Breakfasted and oated our 3 horses, at Deacon Tucker's. 1751 MacSparran Diary (1899) 51 Got up early, set out, oated at Peirce's. 1770 J. Adams Diary Wks. 1850 II. 240 Oated my horse at Newbury. 1787 M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) I. 290 Stopped at a miserable hut of a tavern and oated my horse. 1788 Ibid. 402 Made a stage at Jennison's..only to oat. Ibid., After oating, we went on to Martin's. 1855 P. T. Barnum Life 70 Old ‘Bob’ was duly oated and watered. |