oat (ot)

[Early mod. E. also ote, otes, dial. (Sc.) oits; was already in cultivation before the Christian era, and is sown in a variety of soils in all cool climates, degenerating IMG:content-1546.png:[blocks in formation] a, a spikelet; 6, the lower flowering glume with awn; c, the upper flowering glume; d, a neutral flower; e, grain inclosed by the flowering glumes and the palet, the awn detached. toward the tropics, yet not ripening quite as far north as barley. Oats are grown chiefly as food for beasts, especially horses, being most largely so used in the United States: but they also form an important human food (especially in Scotland, of late years somewhat in the United States), in point of nutrition ranked higher by some than ordinary grades of wheat flour. (See oatmeal, groats, and sowens.) All the varieties of the ordinary cultivated oat are referred to A. sativa, but this is believed by many to be derived from the wild oat, A. fatua. The race called naked oat, sometimes regarded as a species, A. nuda, differs from other sorts in having the seed free from the glume. It is succe ful in Ireland, etc., but not in America. A variety well approved in both hemispheres is the potato-oat, with a large white plump grain, the original of which was found growing accidentally with potatoes. The black Poland is another esteemed variety; the Tartar i an and the Siberian are recommended for poor soils. The varieties are numerous, new ones constantly appearing. It fell on a day, and a bonny simmer day, When green grew aits and barley. Bonnie House of Airly (Child's Ballads, VI. 186). The country squires brewed at home that strong ale which, after dinner, stood on the table in decanters marked with the oat and was drunk in lieu of wine. S. Dowell , Taxes in England, IV. 68. ( b ) Any species of Avena. The wild oat of Europe, A. fatua, is a weed of cultivation in many places; in California, where it abounds, it is extensively utilized as hay. The animal, fly, or hygrometric oat, A. sterilis, native in Barbary, has two long, strong, much-bent awns, which twist and untwist with changes of moisture, and so become a means of locomotion. Various species are more or le available for pasture. 21. A musical pipe of oat-straw; a shepherd's pipe; hence, pastoral song. See oaten pipe, under oaten. IMG:content-1547.png:[blocks in formation] Corbie oats. See corbie. - False oat. Same as oat - gra , 2.- Seaside oat. See spike - gra .- Short oat, a cultivated variety of the oat. Skinle oat. Same as naked oat. See def. 1. To sow one's wild oats, to indulge in youthful exce es; practise the di ipations to which some are prone in the early part of life: hence, to have sown one's wild oats is to have given up youthful follies. We meane that wilfull and unruly age, which lacketh rypene and discretion, and (as wee saye) hath not sowed all theyr wyeld Oates. Touchstone of Complexions (1576), p. 99. ( Davies.) Water-oats. See Indian rice, under rice. - Wild oat. (a) Various species of Avena other than A. sativa. See def. 1 ( b ). (b) Bromus secalinus. [Prov. Eng.] (c) Pharus latifolius. [West Indies.] - Wild oatst, a rakish, di ipated person. The tailors now-a-days are compelled to excogitate, invent, and imagine diversities of fashions for apparel, that may satisfie the foolish desire of certain light brains ne . and wild oats, which are altogether given to new fangle Bacon, Works (ed. 1843), p. 204. ( Nares.) oat-cake (ōt'kāk), n. A cake made of the meal of oats. It is generally very thin and brittle. oaten (o'tn), a. [ He whilest he lived was the noblest swaine That ever piped in an oaten quill. Spenser, Colin Clout, 1. 441. When shepherds pipe on oaten straws. Shak ., L. L. L., v. 2. 913. Might we but hear The folded flocks penn'd in their wattled cotes, Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops. Milton , Comus, 1. 345. 2. Made of oats or oatmeal: as, oaten bread. They lacked oten meale to make cakes with all. Berners, tr. of Froi art's Chron., I. xviii. This botcher looks as if he were dough-baked; a little butter now, and I could eat him like an oaten cake. Fletcher (and another ), Love's Cure, ii. 1. Oaten pipe, a musical pipe made of an oat-straw cut so as to have one end closed by a knot, the other end open. Near the knot a slit is cut so as to form a reed. oat-flight (ot'flit), n. liwell. [Prov. Eng.] The chaff of oats. Hal