3. (American). To fall; to go to ground; hence, to be puzzled or
bewildered.
1869. S. L. Clemens, Innocents at Home, p. 21. You’re most too many
for me, you know. When you get in with your left I hunt grass every
time.
To cut one’s own grass. verb. phr. (thieves’).—To earn one’s own
living.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 242. ‘Cut her own
grass! Good gracious! what is that!’ I asked. ‘Why, purvide her own
chump—earn her own living,’ the old man replied.
To be sent to grass. verb. phr. (University).—To be rusticated; to
receive a travelling scholarship (q.v.).
1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. And was very near rustication [at
Cambridge] merely for kicking up a row after a beakering party.
‘Soho, Jack!’ briskly rejoined another, ‘almost presented with a
travelling fellowship? very nigh being sent to grass, hey?’
Go to grass! phr. (common).—Be off! You be hanged! Go to hell!
1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 95. A gentleman who was swimming
about, upon being refused, declared that he might go to grass with
his old canoe, for he didn’t think it would be much of a shower,
anyhow.
1865. Bacon, Handbook of America, p. 363. Go to grass! be off! get
out!
To let the grass grow under one’s feet, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
proceed or work leisurely. Fr., limer.
To take Nebuchadnezzar out to grass, subs. phr. (venery).—To take a
man. [Nebuchadnezzar = penis.] For synonyms, see Greens.
Grass-comber, subs. (nautical).—A countryman shipped as a sailor.
1886. W. Besant, World Went Very Well Then, ch. xxix. Formerly,
Jack would have replied to this sally that, d’ye see, Luke was a
grass comber and a land swab, but that for himself, there was no
tea aboard ship, and a glass of punch or a bowl of flip was worth
all the tea ever brought from China.
Grasser, subs. (sporting).—A fall.
Grasshopper, subs. (common).—1. A waiter at a tea-garden.