Word.ws English Dictionary

grass-eater

grass-eater noun: an organism notable for eating grass.

Noun (1)

grass-eater (plural grass-eaters)

  1. An organism notable for eating grass
    1. A fish of species Distichodus rostratus or Distichodus engycephalus, of Africa
  2. (figuratively) A police officer who accepts offered bribes but does not actively seek them out.
    • But why do police become grass-eaters at all, if they lack the greed and contempt fo decency necessary to become meat-eaters?2002, Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing, American Enterprise Institute, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 79
    • It was the grass-eaters, the commission found, that made corruption respectable within the organization, encouraging a code of silence among officers.2012, Lee P. Brown, Policing in the 21st Century: Community Policing, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 50

Noun (2)

grass-eater (plural grass-eaters)

  1. (derogatory, slang) A celibate man, especially a Japanese man, who eschews dating and sexual relationships.
    • That is what the modern men of Japan have done, these grass-eaters.2011 March 17, Paul Mceuen, Spiral, Hachette UK, →ISBN
    • The grass-eaters fail to maintain a 'manly' appearance, snared instead by the world of cosmetics and fashion which makes them look soft, 'fragile and girlie' ([…]).2016 July 1, Genaro Castro-Vazquez, Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan (Routledge Research on Gender in Asia Series), Routledge, →ISBN, page 62
    Synonyms:
    herbivore man

Examples of grass-eater in a sentence

  • Grass-eaters constituted the majority of police officers who were corrupt; meat-eaters were rare.2016 September 13, Regoli, John D. Hewitt, Anna E. Kosloski, Exploring Criminal Justice, Jones & Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC...
  • She dubbed them “herbivore men” (shoshoku danshi) in a 2006 article, and the phrase caught on as the nation took note of the gentle grass-eaters.2016 November 14, Kittredge Cherry, Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women, Stone Bridge Press, →ISBN, →OCLC:

Synonyms of grass-eater

Forms of grass-eater

pluralgrass-eaters

Origin of grass-eater

From grass + eater; applied to bribe-accepting polics by the Knapp Commission in the 1970s.

Calque of Japanese 草食系男子 (sōshokukei danshi, “herbivorous/grass-eating male”).

Questions about grass-eater

What does grass-eater mean?
Grass-eater means an organism notable for eating grass.
How do you use grass-eater in a sentence?
Grass-eaters constituted the majority of police officers who were corrupt; meat-eaters were rare.
What part of speech is grass-eater?
Grass-eater is a noun.
What is the plural of grass-eater?
The plural of grass-eater is grass-eaters.

Words near grass-eater in the dictionary

  1. grass-cocks
  2. grass-comber
  3. grass-combers
  4. grass-dart
  5. grass-darts
  6. grass-eater
  7. grass-eaters
  8. grass-fed
  9. grass-green
  10. grass-greens
  11. grass-grown

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: grass-eater (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.

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