Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entry.

(US) a police officer who accepts small bribes; thus grass-eating.

1972		Knapp Commission Report Dec. 65: The overwhelming majority of those who do take payoffs are grass-eaters, who accept gratuities and solicit five- and ten- and twenty-dollar payments from contractors, tow-truck operators, gamblers, and the like, but do not aggressively pursue corruption payments.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 15: The grass eaters, punks and stool pigeons.
1983		B. Gelb Vanished Brass 142: There were the hard-core corrupt [...] the meat-eaters; then there were the grass-eaters, those who picked around, not really looking, but taking if there was something loose.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 137: None of the cops Manny knew would call you a ‘grass-eater.’ They’d just call you a dirty cop.
2012		M.F. Armstrong They Wished They Were Honest 28: It was he who originated the classification of corrupt police officers as ‘meat eaters’ and ‘grass eaters’.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Cops fall into two categories—grass eaters and meat eaters. The grass eaters are the small-timers—they take a cut from the car-towing companies, they get a free coffee, a sandwich. They take what comes, they’re not aggressive.

1. a bare-knuckle boxer; thus grass-fighting, bare-knuckle boxing.

1909		Northern Miner (Charters Towers, Qld) 2 Jan. 2/4: O.K. was fortunate enough to witness a willing battle between Jack Burke and Pill Hudson [...] Both men are pretty well known In the North as grass fighters, and a game go was expected.
1910		Dly Herald (Adelaide) 11 Apr. 7/5: If some of the old-time Corinthians could see a present-day boxing contest and contrast it with the fight-to-a-finish grass fights of the time when the prize ring was at its very zenith.
1913		Port Pirie Recorder & North Western Mail (SA) 15 Feb. 2/8: He has won a lot of grass fights and minor ring events.
1914		Canowindra Star & Eugowra News (NSW) 16 Oct. 7/1: James Lennon, of circus fame, and grass fighter acrobat, was fined £2.
1923		Cessnock Eagle & South Maitland Recorder (NSW) 24 Aug. 2/1: What should prove a very interesting fight [...] between Tommy Juno [...] and Typo Hepplewhite, the Greta grass fighter.
1926		Cessnock Eagle & South Maitland Recorder (NSW) 12 Oct. 8/4: Recently the pair engaged in a grass fight, and honors were even.
1934		Narromine News & Trangie Advocate (NSW) 18 May 8/4: I heard Bill was going to belt the stuffing out of my carcase when he sees me, and I am very anxious to meet him. I reckon I am the best grass fighter who ever wore boots, and I don't think be will do me much harm. I can wallop him to pieces, blacken an eye or two, and knock him as flat as a lizard run over with a steam roller.
1945		Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners’ Advocate (NSW) 18 June 6/2: Rourke, a red-headed old-time bare-knuckle grass fighter.
1951		I.L. Idriess Across Nullarbor 19: Those were the bare-knuckle days, ‘kinged’ over by the grim ‘grass fighters’.
1953		H.G. Lamond Big Red 283: Grass-fighter, bare-knuckle man. Prize-ring rules, or no rules at all.
1967		Canberra Times (ACT) 13 Nov. 10/7: He looks strictly a grass fighter, and his polished opponent had represented Ceylon at the 1962 Commonwealth and the 1964 Olympic Games.
1978		D. Stuart Wedgetail View 99: Professional pug, yes, he makes money [...] though it’s a pretty crook way of making a quid. But grass fighting, hell [...] it’s crazy [AND].

2. one who fights in public rather than in the prize-ring; thus one who is known as a brawler.

1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 220: Fascination was the grass-fighter. No two-minute rounds and a minute spell for him.
1965		R.H. Conquest Horses in Kitchen 123: He reckoned any good Australian grass-fighter, fast on his feet, could skittle a shillelagh man in no time.

see separate entry.

(US) an alfresco act of sexual intercourse.

c.1915		in E. Schaefer Bold! Daring! Shocking! True: A Hist. of Exploitation Films (1999) 7: The first extant American film, A Free Ride (also known as A Grass Sandwich) has been dated about 1915.
1942		Sanders & Blackwell Forces 164: Get a Grass Sandwich: To copulate [HDAS].
1953		C. Sandburg Always the Young Strangers 168: They told of a young fellow saying to his girl, ‘Let’s go to the picnic and after sundown we’ll have a grass sandwich’.

see hayseed n.

the rural provinces, that area of a country beyond the major cities.

1903

E.W. Townsend Sure 6: ‘[M]ost of our big banks is run by men who came here from de provinces.’ ‘Dat’s dude langwudge for long grass’.

(Irish) a duel.

1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 82: Dick Dawson had a message conveyed to him from O’Grady requesting the honour of his company the next morning to ‘grass before breakfast’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 146/2: Grass before breakfast (Irish, 18 cent. and early 19 cent.). Duel. May be a jocular derangement of grace before breakfast.

see separate entries.

(N.Z.) to run off, to abscond.

1909

Truth (Wellington) 29 May 7: But alack and alas! Eady has once more gone to the grass. His miraculous ‘cure’ has ben exploded like a pricked balloon and great was the noise and fall thereof [DNZE].

if a girl has pubic hair she is eligible for seduction, irrespective of her age.

1998		C. Barker Galilee 110: Mitchell’s taste for girls ran to the barely pubescent. ‘If there's grass on the field, play ball,’ that's what he used to say.
2004		Urban Dict. 12 May 🌐 Bob: Do you think Mary is old enough to shag? John: If there's grass on the field play ball.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] ‘Aye well, if you keep to the schoolies then it's an unfair advantage.’ ‘I’ve heard this patter before. I’m having none of it.’ [...] ‘If there’s grass on the pitch – let’s play ... that’s what I say’.
2023		Twitter/X 17 Sept. 🌐 I never had any trouble from the chaps, tho’ the general attitude ‘if there’s grass on the pitch, she's old enough to play’ unsettled me.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 291: Jimmy was a little bit naughty selling on his teenies to support bands. But if there’s grass on the wicket - Game On!

lying low, esp. of someone one hasn’t seen for some time; thus wait for someone in the long grass, to lie low, to maintain a ‘low profile’.

1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 255: In the long grass. Hiding from the police.
1986		B. Geldof Is That It? 213: When you have not seen someone for a long time and you ask them where they have been they might reply, ‘Oh, I’ve been in the long grass,’ meaning they’ve been around but not visible.

(Aus. Und.) free (of prison).

1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 148: He knows Dick and you are on the grass again.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 236/2: on the grass – out of jail.

1. (US) temporarily absent from one’s usual life.

1861

N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 12 Oct. 5/4: Linda Somers is in town once more, having been out at grass all summer.

2. (Aus.) of a woman whose husband is temporarily absent, ie. a SE grass widow.

1901

Truth (Brisbane) 12 May 7/3: In the house there were a slavey / Plump and fresh, not second-hand. / Like her missus, who’s a scorcher — out at grass, you understand.

1. to send out to work as a prostitute.

1608

Merry Devil of Edmonton IV i: You are a couple of hot-shots; does a man commit his wench to you, to put her to grass at this time of night?

2. (also put out to pasture) to send into retirement.

1945		E. Rutherford 15 May diary in Garfield Our Hidden Lives (2004) 25: Churchill sounded tired when he spoke on Sunday. I think he should be put to grass, as he calls it.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 278: He was my squadron once. Before they put me out to grass here.
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 152: ‘I don’t want to be put out to pasture!’ protests Miss M.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 505: A couple of elderly Englishmen who but for the war would long since have been put out to grass.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 122: I’ve worked for the road all my life. In six years they’ll put me out to pasture with a damn good pension.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 239: Oh, you mean Nigel? My dear, he could only get an erection on a wooden rocking horse [...] I put him out to pasture days ago.

see grass v.¹ (1)