1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab and Lond. Poor, I., 539. He sold grass, and such things as cost money.
4. (Australian printers’).—A temporary hand on a newspaper; hence the proverb, ‘a grass on news waits dead men’s shoes.’ Cf., Grass-hand = a raw worker, or green hand.
a. 1889. Fitzgerald, Printers’ Proverbs, quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant. Why are the grass, or casual news hands not put on a more comfortable footing?
Verb (pugilistic).—To throw (or be thrown); to bring (or be brought) to ground. Hence, to knock down; to defeat; to kill.
1818. Egan, Boxiana, ii., 375. He had much the worst of it, and was ultimately grassed.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 57. The shame that aught but death should see him grassed.
1846. Dickens, Dombey, xliv., 385. The Chicken himself attributed this punishment to his having had the misfortune to get into Chancery early in the proceedings, when he was severely fibbed by the Larkey One, and heavily grassed.
1881. Daily Telegraph, 26 Nov. The Doctor had killed twenty out of twenty-five, while his opponent had grassed seventeen out of the same number.
1883. W. Besant, All in a Garden Fair. Intro. It was a sad example of pride before a fall; his foot caught in a tuft of grass, and he was grassed.
1888. Sporting Life, 11 Dec. Just on the completion of the minute grassed his man with a swinging right-hander.