oat

oat  (t)

n.

1. often oats (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

a. Any of various grasses of the genus Avena, especially A. sativa, widely cultivated for their edible grains.

b. The grain of any of these plants, used as food and fodder.

2. Archaic A musical pipe made of an oat straw.

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[Middle English ote, from Old English te.]

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oat

Noun

1. a hard cereal grown as food

2. oats the edible grain of this cereal

3. sow one's wild oats to have casual sexual relationships while young [Old English āte]

oaten adj

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	oat - annual grass of Europe and North Africa; grains used as food and fodder (referred to primarily in the plural: `oats') Avena, genus Avena - oats Avena sativa, cereal oat - widely cultivated in temperate regions for its edible grains Avena fatua, wild oat, wild oat grass - common in meadows and pastures Avena barbata, slender wild oat - oat of southern Europe and southwestern Asia animated oat, Avene sterilis, wild red oat - Mediterranean oat held to be progenitor of modern cultivated oat cereal, cereal grass - grass whose starchy grains are used as food: wheat; rice; rye; oats; maize; buckwheat; millet
	2.	oat - seed of the annual grass Avena sativa (spoken of primarily in the plural as `oats') plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one food grain, grain, cereal - foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses Avena sativa, cereal oat - widely cultivated in temperate regions for its edible grains