Category:Meadow

Mead"ow, n. Etym: [AS. meady; akin to m, and to G. matte; prob. also to E. mow. See Mow to cut (grass), and cf. 2d Mead.]

1. A tract of low or level land producing grass which is mown for hay; any field on which grass is grown for hay.

2. Low land covered with coarse grass or rank herbage near rives and in marshy places by the sea; as, the salt meadows near Newark Bay.

meadow Mead"ow, a.

Defn: Of or pertaining to a meadow; of the nature of a meadow; produced, growing, or living in, a meadow. "Fat meadow ground." Milton.

Note: For many names of plants compounded with meadow, see the particular word in the Vocabulary. Meadow beauty. (Bot.) Same as deergrass. -- Meadow foxtail (Bot.), a valuable pasture grass (Alopecurus pratensis) resembling timothy, but with softer spikes. -- Meadow grass (Bot.), a name given to several grasses of the genus poa, common in meadows, and of great value for nay and for pasture. See Grass. -- Meadow hay, a coarse grass, or true sedge, growing in uncultivated swamp or river meadow; -- used as fodder or bedding for cattle, packing for ice, etc. [Local, U. S.] -- Meadow hen. (Zoöl.) (a) The American bittern. See Stake-driver. (b) The American coot (Fulica). (c) The clapper rail. -- Meadow lark (Zoöl.), any species of Sturnella, a genus of American birds allied to the starlings. The common species (S. magna) has a yellow breast with a black crescent. -- Meadow mouse (Zoöl.), any mouse of the genus Arvicola, as the common American species A. riparia; -- called also field mouse, and field vole. -- Meadow mussel (Zoöl.), an American ribbed mussel (Modiola plicatula), very abundant in salt marshes. -- Meadow ore (Min.), bog-iron ore, a kind of limonite. -- Meadow parsnip. (Bot.) See under Parsnip. -- Meadow pink. (Bot.) See under Pink. -- Meadow pipit (Zoöl.), a small singing bird of the genus Anthus, as A. pratensis, of Europe. -- Meadow rue (Bot.), a delicate early plant, of the genus thalictrum, having compound leaves and numerous white flowers. There are many species. -- Meadow saffron. (Bot.) See under Saffron. -- Meadow sage. (Bot.) See under Sage. -- Meadow saxifrage (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant of Europe (Silaus pratensis), somewhat resembling fennel. -- Meadow snipe (Zoöl.), the common or jack snipe.

-

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Meadow - (1.) Heb. ha'ahu (Genesis 41:2, Genesis 41:18), probably an Egyptian word transferred to the Hebrew; some kind of reed or water-plant. In the Revised Version it is rendered "reed-grass", i.e., the sedge or rank grass by the river side. (2.) Heb. ma'areh (Judges 20:33), pl., "meadows of Gibeah" (R.V., after the LXX., " Maareh-geba "). Some have adopted the rendering "after Gibeah had been left open." The Vulgate translates the word "from the west."