fescue
/ˈfɛskjuː/
fescue noun: a straw, wire, stick, etc., used chiefly to point out letters to children when learning to read.
Noun
fescue (countable and uncountable, plural fescues)
- A straw, wire, stick, etc., used chiefly to point out letters to children when learning to read.
- to come under the fescue of an imprimatur1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC
- ‘Now then,’ Mason rapping upon the Table’s Edge with a sinister-looking Fescue of Ebony, whose List of Uses simple Indication does not quite exhaust, whilst the Girls squirm pleasingly1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
- A hardy grass commonly used to border golf fairways in temperate climates, of the genus Festuca.
- An instrument for playing on the harp; a plectrum.
- with thy golden fescue play'dst upon
Thy hollow harpc. 1610s, Homer (attributed), translated by George Chapman, The Crowne of all Homers Workes: Batrachomyomachia, or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise […], published 1624
- with thy golden fescue play'dst upon
- The style of a sundial.
Verb
fescue (third-person singular simple present fescues, present participle fescuing, simple past and past participle fescued)
- To use a fescue, or teach with a fescue.
- A minister that cannot be trusted to pray in his own words without being chewed to, and fescued to a formal injunction of his rote lesson, should as little be trusted to preach, besides the vain babble of praying over the same things immediately again ; for there is a large difference in the...1641, John Milton, Animadversions upon The Remonstrants Defence Against Smectymnuus
fescue meaning in Arabic
fescue in Arabic
- grass
- عِكْرِش ʕikriš, فَسْتُوكَا fastūkā, فَسْتُوكَة fastūka
Forms of fescue
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fescues |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fescues |
| present participle | fescuing |
| past participle | fescued |
| past | fescued |
Origin of fescue
Inherited from Middle English festu, from Old French festu (modern fétu), from Late Latin *festūcum, from Latin festūca (“stalk, stem, straw”).
Words formed from fescue
Phrases with fescue
Questions about fescue
- What does fescue mean?
- Fescue means a straw, wire, stick, etc., used chiefly to point out letters to children when learning to read.
- What is fescue in Arabic?
- Fescue in Arabic is عِكْرِش (ʕikriš), فَسْتُوكَا (fastūkā), فَسْتُوكَة (fastūka). See Fescue meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is fescue?
- Fescue can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce fescue?
- Fescue is pronounced /ˈfɛskjuː/.
- What is the plural of fescue?
- The plural of fescue is fescues.
Words near fescue in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fescue (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fescue.wav.
Cite this entry: “fescue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fescue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.