oats

English

Pronunciation

Noun

oatsCategory:English non-lemma forms#OATSCategory:English noun forms#OATSCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#OATSCategory:Pages with entries#OATSCategory:Pages with 1 entry#OATS

  1. plural of oat

Noun

oats sg or plCategory:English lemmas#OATSCategory:English nouns#OATSCategory:English nouns construed as singular or plural#OATSCategory:English uncountable nouns#OATSCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#OATSCategory:English pluralia tantum#OATSCategory:Pages with entries#OATSCategory:Pages with 1 entry#OATS

  1. A mass of oat plants (genus Avena, especially Avena sativa).
    Oats are in the north corner of the farm.Category:English terms with usage examples#OATS
    Usually oats is last in a rotation and does not get the fertilizer that other feed grains get.Category:English terms with usage examples#OATS
  2. Seeds of an oat plant, especially prepared as food.
    Oats is a heart-healthy breakfast food.Category:English terms with usage examples#OATS
  3. (slangCategory:English slang#OATS) Sexual intercourse, sexual satisfaction; semen. [from 18th century]
    Synonyms: wild oats, seed; see also Thesaurus:copulation
    • a. 1707, George Farquhar, The Works of George Farquhar, published 1988, page 55:
      Must I beat the Bush while you catch the Game ;
      Sow your wild oates,
      And mind not her wild notes,
      Of Alack &c.
      […]
      [She] bid me fill, fill, fill
      Her Sack &c.
      But twas all in Vaine
      For I had spilt my graine
      With a Thwack, &c.
      Category:English terms with quotations#OATS
    • 1945, Robert Close, Love me Sailor, published 1972, page 62:
      “ […] he’s young,” he added excusingly. “And I suppose he’s just feeling his oats a bit.”
      “Well he can save his damned oats up until we get into port—like any other sailor. If I catch him making those sort of passes at any woman who happens to be making a passage with us, Mister Samuals, I’ll disrate him and send him to the fo’c’sle!”
      Category:English terms with quotations#OATS
    • 1975, Bruce Jackson, Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: Narrative Poetry from Black Oral Tradition, page 135:
      Now you been foolin’ with your oats, you been messin’ with your hay, you say, “If you take me back, baby, I’ll do it the other way.”
      Category:English terms with quotations#OATS

Usage notes

For millennia, oats were wrongly believed to be a degenerate form of another grain. This contempt may underlie Samuel Johnson's infamous definition in his 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language

A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

Synonyms

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Anagrams

Category:en:Grains#OATSCategory:en:Poeae tribe grasses#OATS
Category:Cantonese terms with redundant transliterations Category:English 1-syllable words Category:English 2-syllable words Category:English lemmas Category:English non-lemma forms Category:English noun forms Category:English nouns Category:English nouns construed as singular or plural Category:English pluralia tantum Category:English slang Category:English terms with IPA pronunciation Category:English terms with audio pronunciation Category:English terms with quotations Category:English terms with usage examples Category:English uncountable nouns Category:Entries with translation boxes Category:Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations Category:Pages with 1 entry Category:Pages with entries Category:Rhymes:English/əʊts Category:Rhymes:English/əʊts/1 syllable Category:Terms with Afrikaans translations Category:Terms with Ancient Greek translations Category:Terms with Arabic translations Category:Terms with Armenian translations Category:Terms with Aromanian translations Category:Terms with Avar translations Category:Terms with Bashkir translations Category:Terms with Bats translations Category:Terms with Cantonese translations Category:Terms with Catalan translations Category:Terms with Chechen translations Category:Terms with Chuvash translations Category:Terms with Czech translations Category:Terms with Dalmatian translations Category:Terms with Danish translations Category:Terms with Dutch translations Category:Terms with East Circassian translations Category:Terms with Eastern Mari translations Category:Terms with Esperanto translations Category:Terms with Finnish translations Category:Terms with French translations Category:Terms with Friulian translations Category:Terms with Galician translations Category:Terms with Georgian translations Category:Terms with German translations Category:Terms with Greek translations Category:Terms with Hungarian translations Category:Terms with Icelandic translations Category:Terms with Ingrian translations Category:Terms with Ingush translations Category:Terms with Irish translations Category:Terms with Italian translations Category:Terms with Kalmyk translations Category:Terms with Karachay-Balkar translations Category:Terms with Kashubian translations Category:Terms with Kazakh translations Category:Terms with Khmer translations Category:Terms with Latin translations Category:Terms with Laz translations Category:Terms with Lower Sorbian translations Category:Terms with Macedonian translations Category:Terms with Mandarin translations Category:Terms with Manx translations Category:Terms with Mingrelian translations Category:Terms with Mongolian translations Category:Terms with Navajo translations Category:Terms with Nogai translations Category:Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations Category:Terms with Norwegian Nynorsk translations Category:Terms with Occitan translations Category:Terms with Ossetian translations Category:Terms with Polish translations Category:Terms with Portuguese translations Category:Terms with Romanian translations Category:Terms with Russian translations Category:Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations Category:Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations Category:Terms with Southern Altai translations Category:Terms with Spanish translations Category:Terms with Svan translations Category:Terms with Swedish translations Category:Terms with Tamil translations Category:Terms with Tatar translations Category:Terms with Turkish translations Category:Terms with Uyghur translations Category:Terms with Venetan translations Category:Terms with Vietnamese translations Category:Terms with Walloon translations Category:Terms with Welsh translations Category:Terms with West Circassian translations Category:Terms with Yiddish translations Category:Terms with Yola translations Category:en:Grains Category:en:Poeae tribe grasses