oat

[usually pl.]
1. a hardy, widely grown cereal grass (Avena sativa)
2. the edible grain of this grass
any of various related grasses (genus Avena), esp. the wild oats
Obs. a simple musical pipe made of an oat stalk

Origin of oat

Middle English ote from Old English ate: not found in other Germanic languages: probably from Indo-European base an unverified form oid-, to swell

oat Idioms

feel one's oats

Slang

to be in high spirits; be frisky
to feel and act important

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oat

noun

often oats used with a sing. or pl. verb
a. Any of various grasses of the genus Avena, especially A. sativa, widely cultivated for their edible grains.
b. The grain of any of these plants, used as food and fodder.
A musical pipe made of an oat straw.

Origin of oat

Middle English ote from Old English āte

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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"Oat." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Oat.

APA Style

Oat. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Oat

Noun

(countable and uncountable, plural oats)

(uncountable) Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa.
The oat stalks made good straw.
The main forms of oat are meal and bran.
World trade in oat is increasing.
(countable) Any of the numerous species, varieties, or cultivars of any of several similar grain plants in genus Avena.
The wild red oat is thought to be the ancestor of modern food oats.
(usually as plural) The seeds of the oat, harvested as a food crop.

Origin

Middle English ote, from Old English Äte, from Proto-Germanic *aitÇ (“swelling"), from Proto-Indo-European *hâ‚eid- (“to swell"). For sense development, compare Ancient Greek oÃdax 'unripe fig' from oÃ®dos 'swelling, tumor'.

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"Oat." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Oat.

APA Style

Oat. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Oat

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