couch grass

[ kouch gras, kooch ]

noun

1. any of various grasses, especially Agropyron repens, known chiefly as troublesome weeds and characterized by creeping rootstocks that spread rapidly.

couch grass

/ kuːtʃ; kaʊtʃ /

noun

1. a grass, Agropyron repens, with a yellowish-white creeping underground stem by which it spreads quickly: a troublesome weed Sometimes shortened tocouch Also calledscutch grasstwitch grassquitch grass

Word History and Origins

Origin of couch grass¹

1570–80; couch, variant of quitch

Example Sentences

I remember one summer evening, sitting under a cloud of midges, weeding out couch grass until it was too dark to see.

From The Guardian

Already clumps of couch grass are beginning to thrust up.

From Literature

He had red hair, planted in his head like couch grass, and on his nose he wore a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles.

From Project Gutenberg

Those lovely eyes! ’tis the sun blazing on me, making the madness of love spring up higher than couch grass in a deserted garden.”

From Project Gutenberg

I remember the horrent couch grass that waved its ragged tresses above me, and how I told myself that the range of the sand dunes were great lions with bristling manes marching along to Exmouth.

From Project Gutenberg