especially: a widely cultivated cereal grass (A. sativa)
b
: a crop or plot of the oat
also: the seed of an oat —usually used in plural but singular or plural in construction
2
archaic: a reed instrument made of an oat straw
Illustration of oat
oat 1a
Phrases
feel one's oats
: to act in a newly self-confident and often self-important manner
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebOne drink that Discourse offers in the fall is the Clyde: mango, tamarind, chai concentrate, oat milk, nutmeg and optional espresso. Carol Deptolla, Journal Sentinel, 16 Sep. 2022 The rise of oat milk as a leading dairy alternative has moved oats center stage and into our dietary attention, and rightly so! Amy Fischer M.s., R.d., Good Housekeeping, 14 Sep. 2022 Other terms like oat milk, pumpkin spice, subvariant, false positive, shrinkflation, and gift economy have also been added to the dictionary.Essence, 10 Sep. 2022 The dictionary also prepared a full plate of food-centric words, such as omakase, birria, oat milk and bahn mi. Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 9 Sep. 2022 Some are related to popular food trends like pumpkin spice, oat milk or omakase, which means chef’s choice—typically in a sushi setting. Martine Paris, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2022 The murky dregs of my iced oat latte condensate all over my desk. Ali Francis, Bon Appétit, 17 July 2022 The conditioner's hero ingredient, oat milk, is known for its skin-soothing properties. Lauren Dana Ellman, Allure, 2 Sep. 2022 The Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and the Apple Crisp Macchiato, now made with oat milk and the chain’s Blonde espresso blend, also return to the Starbucks menu on Tuesday. Joey Morona, cleveland, 29 Aug. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English ote "the grain of the oat plant, the plant itself," going back to Old English āte (weak feminine noun), of uncertain origin
Note: Old English āte has been compared with regional Dutch aate, oote "wild oats" (West and Zeeland Flanders), West Frisian and Groningen Dutch oat. (These contrast with Dutch haver, denoting cultivated oats, a reflex of the Common Germanic word for the grain.) Michiel de Vaan, in an addenda to the online etymologiebank.nl, believes that the Flanders words are semantic extensions of regional aat "food," of general Germanic origin (see eat entry 2), though this hypothesis would scarcely explain the Old English word. Jan de Vries (Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek, Brill, 1971) hypothesizes that the Low Country words may have been borrowed from English.
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of oat was before the 12th century