tussock

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n tussock a bunch of hair or feathers or growing grass
    • ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Tussock (Zoöl) A caterpillar of any one of numerous species of bombycid moths. The body of these caterpillars is covered with hairs which form long tufts or brushes. Some species are very injurious to shade and fruit trees. Called also tussock caterpillar. See Orgyia.
    • Tussock A tuft, as of grass, twigs, hair, or the like; especially, a dense tuft or bunch of grass or sedge. "Such laying of the hair in tussocks and tufts."
    • Tussock (Bot) Same as Tussock grass, below.
    • ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n tussock A clump, tuft, or small hillock of growing grass.
    • n tussock Same as tuft, 1.
    • n tussock A tussock-moth, as of the genus Orgyia (which see); a vaporer: so called from the tufted larvæ. The larva of the white-marked tussock, O. leucostigma, is a very destructive caterpillar in the United States. The pale tussock is the European O. pudibunda: so called in England.
    • n tussock Same as tussock-grass.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Tussock tus′ok a tuft of grass or twigs
    • ***

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
From Tuz
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Perh. conn. with obs. tusk, a tuft; cf. Dan. dusk.

Usage

In literature:

Reject all stones, rough clods, tussocks, and the like.
"Mushrooms: how to grow them" by William Falconer
On the bottom is placed about one foot of "tussocks" from a neighboring bog, which may in time decay.
"Woodward's Graperies and Horticultural Buildings" by George E. Woodward
The downy woodpecker is very useful in the orchard, because it destroys great numbers of larvae of the tussock-moth and other insects.
"Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study" by Ontario Ministry of Education
The girl picked her way across the bog, jumping from one tussock to the next.
"The Flaming Jewel" by Robert W. Chambers
Presently he sees a dark form raise itself near a tussock of grass.
"Our Home in the Silver West" by Gordon Stables
With them have gone a fair portion of the tussock worms, but the sparrow holds his own.
"The Meaning of Evolution" by Samuel Christian Schmucker
Sometimes there is a scant lining of grasses or weeds and again the nests will be situated in the midst of a tussock of grass.
"The Bird Book" by Chester A. Reed
Acres of alder swamp spread away on either hand, set with swale and pool and tussock.
"The Moonlit Way" by Robert W. Chambers
She came out upon the narrow tussock slowly, but surely.
"The Girls of Central High on Track and Field" by Gertrude W. Morrison
What methods would you use that the tussock moth might be destroyed or kept out of a community?
"A Guide for the Study of Animals" by Worrallo Whitney
***

In poetry:

Emblems of storm and danger,
Spindrift and mountain stern,
Plants that welcome the stranger—
Seaweed, tussock, and fern.
"Seaweed, Tussock and Fern" by Henry Lawson
Plants that welcome the stranger,
Sea-swept and driven astern,
Beloved by the wide-world ranger—
Seaweed, tussock, and fern.
"Seaweed, Tussock and Fern" by Henry Lawson
Known to the world-wide ranger,
Who sailed on the “Never Return,”
Emblems of storm and danger—
Flax and tussock and fern.
"Seaweed, Tussock and Fern" by Henry Lawson
Guarded broods and litters
Behind shut doors; the dairy herds
Knelt in the meadow mute as boulders;
Sheep drowsed stoneward in their tussocks of wool, and birds,
Twig-sleep, wore
"Hardcastle Crags" by Sylvia Plath

In news:

Abundance of Hickory Tussock Moths this year.
wstm.com
I was scanning anxiously ahead as my dog team pulled the nine-foot basket sled down the bank and over the grassy tussocks to the slough.
newsminer.com
***

In science:

The CCC values are significantly different between rivers surrounded by forest (pine, broadleaf ) and rivers surrounded by grassland (tussock, pasture).
The Emergence of Modularity in Biological Systems
***

Related words