fescue

[ fes-kyoo ]

noun
  1. Also called fescue grass . any grass of the genus Festuca, some species of which are cultivated for pasture or lawns.

  2. a pointer, as a straw or slender stick, used to point out the letters in teaching children to read.

Origin of fescue

1
1350–1400; earlier festue,Middle English festu<Middle French <Vulgar Latin *festūcum, for Latin festūca stalk, straw

Words Nearby fescue

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use fescue in a sentence

  • The reader is probably acquainted with the fescue Grass, with its awned flowers arranged in one-sided panicles.

    The Sea Shore | William S. Furneaux
  • Meadow fescue is one of the most common of the fescue grasses, and is said to be the Randall grass of Virginia.

    Cattle and Their Diseases | Robert Jennings
  • The fescue (Festuca ovina), a little fern (Woodsia), and a saussurea ascend very near the summit.

    The Heart of Nature | Francis Younghusband
  • A larger form, the Hard fescue (F. duriuscula), is common to sound meadows and the hill valleys.

  • Meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis, fig. 20) may be taken as the type of the broad-leaved fescues.

British Dictionary definitions for fescue

fescue

fescue grass

/ (ˈfɛskjuː) /


noun
  1. any grass of the genus Festuca : widely cultivated as pasture and lawn grasses, having stiff narrow leaves: See also meadow fescue, sheep's fescue

Origin of fescue

1
C14: from Old French festu, ultimately from Latin festūca stem, straw

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012