Forms: 1 hwæte, 2–3 hwete, 3–6 wete, 4–5 wheet(e, whet, 4–6 whete, 6–7 wheate, (1 huæte, 3 whæte, hweate, 4 huete, whyte, wit, 5 wheytt, white, 5–6 whett(e, whyt, 6 wheitt, whaytt, whiett, wett(e, weate), 6– wheat; Sc. and north. dial. 4–5 quhet, qwet, 5–6 quhete, qwheit, 5–7 quheit (4 quete, 5 qw(h)ete, qwheet, qhete, qwete, qwyte, qwyet, quhe(y)t, 6 quheitt, quhait, quheite, qwheytte, queat, quhyt(t, vhyt). [OE. hwǽte str. m. = OFris. *(h)wête (NFris. wêtte), OS. hwêti (MDu. weite, Du. weit), MLG. weiten, wêten (LG. weten), OHG. weiʓʓi, (MHG. weiȥe, weitȥe, G. weizen), ON. hveiti (Sw. vete, Da. hvede), Goth. hwaiteis:—OTeut. *χwaitjaʓ, derivative of *χwīt- WHITE.]
1. The grain of a cereal (see sense 2), furnishing a meal or flour which constitutes the chief breadstuff in temperate countries.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, lxiv. 14 [lxv. 13]. Convalles abundabunt frumento, dene ʓenyhtsumiað hwæte.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. iii. 12. He ʓegaderað hys hwæte on his bern.
c. 1200. Ormin, 10527. I þa þatt swelltenn winndweþþ Crist & clennseþþ here hiss whæte.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 292, in O. E. Misc., 10. Ðe mire suneð ðe barlic, Ðanne ȝe fint te wete.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 270. Ane wummon … þet windwede hweate.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 18. Vor engelonde is vol inoȝ, of frut, & ek of tren, Of wit [v.rr. whyte, whyt] & of wolle god.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 10091. Þe vble ys made of whete, Þe louelyest corne þat men ete.
13[?]. Cursor M., 22327 (Gött.). Þe mett of qwet, als it es tald, For a peni it sal be sald.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvi. (Nycholas), 214. In þe hawine schipis gret Ware arywit, chargit with quhet.
c. 1480. Henryson, Two Mice, 361. Full benelie stuffit … Of beinis, and nuttis, peiss, ry, and quhite.
1485. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 291. The busshell of whette be boghte for xii. d.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, viii. 187. The rasour of whete was solde for fourty shelynges and twenty pence.
1550–3. Decaye Eng., in S. Fish, Supplic., etc. (1871), 99. Allowe to euery person ij. quarters of weate.
1556. Chron. Grey Friars (Camden), 4. Thys yere a bushelle of wett was at five shillings.
1569. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 218. L. stroke queat unbarrowed.
1603. Dekker, Batchelars Banquet, Wks. (Grosart), I. 176. I can tell you their mouthes will not be stopt with a bushell of wheat that speake it.
1833. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 167. An ill-used race of men … Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil.
b. in allusive and proverbial use: often opposed to chaff, tares.
a. 1225. Juliana, 79. Hwen drihtin o domes dei windweð his hweate.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 59. It were a schort beyete To winne chaf and lese whete.
1561. Winȝet, Bk. Questions, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 120. Guid and euill, expressit in the Euangell, be the similitude of quheit and fitcheis.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Pain, Quiers tu meilleur pain que de fourment? Wouldst thou haue better bread then’s made of wheat?
1639. J. Clarke, Parœm., 46. Malt is above the wheat with him. Cylicum remiges.
1874. Sankey’s Sacred Songs (1878), 11. Let us keep the wheat and roses, Casting out the thorns and chaff.
1874. C. E. Norton, Lett. (1913), II. 38. He had now got a good handful of pure wheat to offer in the place of his common sackful of the most unnutritious chaff.
2. The cereal plant (closely related to barley and rye) which yields this grain, esp. common wheat, Triticum vulgare (sativum), cultivated in temperate climates.
With qualification denoting a particular kind, as DUCK-BILL wheat, goat’s wheat (GOAT 4 c), GUINEA wheat, Indian wheat (INDIAN a. 4 b), Lammas-wheat (LAMMAS sb. 4), POLAND wheat, Pollard wheat (POLLARD sb.2 B. 1), RED WHEAT, Rivet-wheat (RIVET sb.2 b), Spelt-wheat (SPELT sb.1 2), Summer wheat (SUMMER sb.1 4 c), TURKEY WHEAT, WHITE wheat, WINTER wheat; also applied to some plants of other genera, as BUCKWHEAT, COW-WHEAT, French wheat (FRENCH a. 5).
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. xiii. 25. Mið ðy uutedlice ʓeslepdon … ða menn cuom fiond his & ofer-ʓeseawu … sifðe In middum hwæte.
1340–70. Alex. & Dind., 692. Hue tilede in hur time on þe touh erþe, whete soþliche sew.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxviii. (W. de W.), V ij/2. Of whete is dowble kynde: One manere kynde is red wythout … and is moost whyte wythin, & heuy…. The other manere whete is yelowe wythout and clere and whyte wythin: and is lyghte.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxx. 134. In þis cuntree es lytill qwheet or barly.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xi. 80. Sithis, and all hukis that scheris quheit.
1580. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 49. Graie wheat is the grosest, yet good for the clay…. Much like vnto rie be his properties found.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., I. i. 185. When wheate is greene, when hauthorne buds appeare.
1603. G. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1892), 60. A third kinde of wheate … which is called holie wheate or sommer wheate.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IX. 415. I found the Wheat here growing higher then my head.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 846/1. The three principal kinds of bad wheat are, the blighted, the smutty, and the worm-eaten.
1867. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., v. (1870), 103. Wheat will not thrive in hot climates.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), I. II. 587. The tall wheat, coloured by the August fire Grew heavy-headed.
3. pl. Wheat-plants; crops of wheat; kinds of wheat.
1795. Scots Mag., LVII. 544/1. In Lancashire … their wheats are not yet on the bloom.
1797. Sporting Mag., X. 297. The new Wheats already thrashed out.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 429. They are frequently also sown on the young wheats and clovers in the spring.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 339. The bread of Perth in particular, where those wheats are alone used, equals any in the united kingdom.
1888. Daily News, 13 Oct., 2/6. Foreign white wheats and American Duluth have hardened to a small advance on the week.
1894. Times, 22 Jan., 4/1. The young wheats are, as a rule, looking little or none the worse for their week beneath the snow.
4. attrib. and Comb., as wheat-area, -awn, -barn, -blade, -blossom, -blossoming, -braird, -bran, -bread, -chaff, -close (CLOSE sb.1 2), -colo(u)r, -crop, -crust, -drill, -eddish, -fallow, -field, -firlot, -flour, -garner, -glean (GLEAN sb.1 1), -grain, -ground, -grower, -harvest, -haulm, -house, -loaf, -loft, -malt, -mill, -mow, pit (PIT sb.1 11), -plant, -producer, -production, -reed (REED sb.1 2 c), -rick, -ridge, -riping, -screenings (cf. SCREEN sb.1 5), -scrip (SCRIP sb.4), -seed, -seeding, -sheaf, -sowing, -stack, -stalk, -starch, -straw, -stubble, -threave; wheat-colo(u)red, -fed, -growing, -hid adjs.; applied to insects, fungi, etc., destructive to wheat, as wheat-bug, -caterpillar, -gall-fly, -ghat, -insect, -joint-worm, -louse, -maggot, -midge, -mildew, -mite, -moth, -plant-louse, -weevil, -worm; applied to implements used in obtaining or preparing the wheat-grain, as wheat-brush, -dryer, -flail, -heater, -ridder, -riddle, -separator, -sieve. b. Special Combs.: wheat-barley = naked barley (NAKED a. 12 c); wheat-berry, the grain of wheat; wheat-bird, a bird that feeds on wheat, esp. the chaffinch; wheat-duck, the American widgeon, Mareca americana, found in flocks in wheat-fields; wheat-fish, the squeteague; wheat-fly, name for various insects whose larvæ infest the wheat plant, as the Hessian fly, the wheat-midge, etc.; wheat-grass, name for various species of the genus Triticum, esp. couch-grass, T. repens; wheat-lay dial., the sowing of land with wheat; wheat-rent, in the Channel Islands, wheat paid as rent (cf. QUARTER sb. 4 b). See also WHEAT-CORN, etc.
1834. Spectator, No. 2932. 1165. Whether the *wheat-area of the world will be maintained.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., lxxiv. I caught a limb, and tore it (like a *wheat-awn) from the socket.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. viii. 460. Hordeum Nudum. Naked or bare Barley, *Wheate Barley.
1377. in Cal. Close Rolls, 509. [The grange called the] *wheteberne.
1474–5. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 156. Pro tectura … super le Whetebarn Manerii de Eluet.
1543. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 42. In the whiett barne, whaytt and rye.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 20 Sept., 8/1. The *wheatberry, to become blood, bone, and flesh, must be broken up.
1746–7. M. Catesby, in Phil. Trans., XLIV. 444. They [sc. exotic Birds] arrive [in Virginia] annually at the time that Wheat … is at a certain Degree of Maturity…. They have attain’d the Name of *Wheat-Birds.
1867. Emerson, Poems, May-day, 201. The dead log touched bursts into leaf, The *wheat-blade whispers of the sheaf.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xiii. 154. The nipping Winds … which … might destroy the tender *Wheat Blossoms.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 299. The cows milk abates about *wheat-blossoming time.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 150. The *wheat-braird was strong.
14[?]. Sir Beues (C.), 1622 + 21. Ȝyt was he wonte before eche day…. Of *whyte brawne to haue a messe.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 75. Tak whete branne als myche as sufficeþ.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 257. If a little Wheat-bran is boiled in our ordinary Beer.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. VII. 120. Þough *whete bred me faille.
1552. 2nd Prayer-bk. Edw. VI., Commun. rubric, The best and purest wheate bread, that conueniently maye be gotten.
1703. J. Brand, Descr. Orkney, 18. As for Wheat-bread it is rare.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 945/1. *Wheat Brush, a device for scouring grain.
1860. Curtis, Farm Insects, Index, *Wheat-bugs. Miris tritici and M. erraticus.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxxi. III. 277. This door is to serve the moth for its exit, like that formed by the *wheat-caterpillar.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 46. *Wheat chaffe lay vp drie.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, The Ox, 149/1. Supposing that the stomach be distended by light materials, as wheat-chaff, chopped straw.
1599. George a Greene, C j b. Madge pointed to meete me in your *wheate close.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxix. He’s in Gaffer Gabblewood’s wheat-close.
1711. Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), III. 150. The hair on the upper [lip] being thin and short of a *wheat Colour.
1858. N. Y. Times, 1 Jan., 2/6. Hair black, complexion light wheat-colored, large eyes, and flat round face.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 10 March, 3/2. The *wheat-coloured straw.
1581. Durham Wills (Surtees), II. 42. All the *wheat crope, that is sowen upon my farmhold.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 338. That my wheat-crops would be hurt by the north-easterly winds.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org. (1862), xiii. § 1. 834. Land which might have been supposed to have been exhausted of its phosphates by a previous wheat-crop.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. ii. 65. Your course *wheat-crust would bee kneaded with hot-water.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xxii. 318. In the Side of a Mortise of a *Wheat-Drill.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 113/1. Model of the Patent *Wheat Dryer.
1764. Museum Rust., II. XXIV. 76. Immediately after harvest I turn them on the *wheat eddishes.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 20. They … will not allow a load of … dung at harvest to come through their *wheat-fallow.
1892. Times (weekly ed.), 2 Feb., 89/3. The *wheat-fed pork of the North West.
1425. in Rep. MSS. Ld. Middleton (1911), 108. That no man take away his bestes fro the comyn herd … to go in the *qwere feld to lese the qwete.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 209. By laying corne-grounds and wheat-fields to his owne demaines.
1840. Longf., Sp. Stud., III. i. Over the wheat-fields, where the shadows sail.
1771. Encycl. Brit., II. 706/2. That the *wheat firlot shall contain 19 pints and two joucattes.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 111. The Squeteague…. Some old authorities use the name *‘Wheat-fish.’
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 31. When … þer is added þerto white of eiren and oyle, wiþ wax and *whete floure.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxxx[i] 16. He shulde fede them with the fynest wheate floure.
1639. O. Wood, Alph. Bk. Secrets, 102. Fry them together till they be thick with a little wheatflower.
1766. Phil. Trans., LVII. 456. A mucilaginous vegetable paste … as wheat-flower and water.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, The Ox, 175/1. Gruel made of fine wheat-flour.
1798. Nemnich, Polygl. Lex., Virginian *Wheat fly, a mischievous insect in the American state: It eats the grain, and is a moth in a perfect state.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 951. The wheat-fly, Cecidomyia tritici.
1453–4. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 634. Operanti … super … emendacionem de le *Whet-garner.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 96. The *whete glene crowned above the greyne.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xliv. IV. 221. The Ichneumon of the *wheat-gnat.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 5590. An hundred mavis [? mowis] of *whete greyne.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. IV. iii. It has now … sifted out the true wheat-grains of National Deputies.
1918. Chamb. Jrnl., Aug., 520/1. For years millers have laboured to provide us with a perfectly white loaf, throwing away some of the most valuable parts of the wheat-grain in so doing.
1663. Wilkins, Real Char., 73. *Wheat-grass … either the greater used for the making of frails: or the lesser.
1766. Museum Rust., VI. 442. Common Wheat-grass, or Couch-grass.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), II. 173. Sea Wheat-grass. Rush Wheat.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 17. He sows on his *wheat-ground … about February.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 348. That is a profit more than the rent of the ground, and half as much again above the profit of the *wheat-grower.
1868. Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869), 18. The pioneer upon the prairie is a wheat-grower.
1840. Buel, Farmer’s Comp., 23. Pennsylvania, then one of the best *wheat-growing States.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxx. 14. And Ruben goon out in tyme of *wheet heruest into the feeld.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xiii. 154. If their Wheat Harvest in Sicily be about the 20th of May.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 130. Ʒenim gate tord & *hwæte healm ʓebærn to duste.
1748. Lond. & Country Brewer, IV. (ed. 2), 255. Wheat Straw under a Hair-Cloth is reckoned the best Fuel by most, Rye-Straw next, and Wheat-Haulm worse.
1827. Clare, Sheph. Cal., 50. And lonely chirp the *wheat-hid quails.
1559. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 143. For covering ye *whete house ut patet per billam.
1710. Hilman, Tusser Rediv., June (1744), 72. Lay it in the best Place you have, for which the Wheat-Houses now in request … are I think the best.
1819. D. B. Warden, Acc. United States, II. 53. The Hessian fly, or *wheat insect (Tipula tritici).
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 324. It may be proper to fold till Christmas, and then go on the *wheat-lay.
1534. Star Chamber Cases (Selden Soc.), II. 208. The Baillye … Weyed ageyn his bredde wiche was to leight in the 1d *Whete loffe iiij ounces.
1587. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 26. [A] *wheate loft.
1452. Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889), 275. Drege malte, pese, benes, *whetemalte.
1743. Lond. & Country Brewer, II. (ed. 2), 93. Wheat-Malt also differs much from Barley-Malt.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 304. The *wheat-midge (Cecidomyia tritici).
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 185/1. Chondrocopium farreum,… a *wheate mill or (as some say) an otemeale mill.
1860. Curtis, Farm Insects, Index, *Wheat-mite. An acarus infesting stored corn.
1862. T. W. Harris, Insects injur. Veget. (ed. 3), Index, *Wheat moths.
c. 1700. Bagford Ballads (1876), I. 66. Both his *Wheat Mows & his Hay, By Flames of Fire are consum’d away.
1808. Corbett, in Friendsh. Mary R. Mitford (1882), I. 43. The hares will be heard squeaking like rats on the breaking up of a wheat-mow.
1884. Depew, in Harper’s Mag. (1886), XII. 217. In the *Wheat Pit at Chicago in a single year was buried more of the future prosperity of this republic than the sum of all the traffic which flows through that great city in a decade.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xi. 112. If the How-Plow goes so near to the Rows as it ought, it would be apt to tear out the *Wheat-Plants along with the Stubble.
1868. Rep. U.S. Comm. Agric. (1869), 17. A disposition to increase the breadth of *wheat-planting.
1860. Curtis, Farm Insects, Index, *Wheat plant-louse, Aphis granaria.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 1 July, 6/3. Canada aims at being the great *wheat-producer of the world.
1884. Spectator, No. 2932. 1165/2. To increase *wheat-production in India.
1813. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, Gloss., *Wheat-reed, straw preserved unthrashed for thatching.
1682. Warburton, Guernsey (1822), 94. A man, that has either house or land which he wishes to dispose of,… sells it to another to hold to him and his heirs for ever, paying yearly so many quarters … of *wheat rent.
1694. Falle, Jersey, iii. 95. Together with several Parcels of Lands and Meadows, Wheat-Rents, Escheats.
c. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 182. In that fashion, without thatching, they make *wheat-reeks in the Isle of Wight.
1823. Cobbett, Rural Rides (1885), I. 255. A … farm-house,… with a wheat-rick standing in the yard.
c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 32. Take a seve or a *wheterydoun.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 200. Our Wheat-ridder Sieves.
1479–80. Priory of Finchale (Surtees), p. cccxlvii. ij *whetridils, iij haveridils, et ij cribris.
1729. P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 45. Windowed my wheat the chaff out of it, but, for want of a wheat riddle, we could dress it no further.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 281. A wheat-riddle of wood.
1733. Tull, Horse-hoeing Husb., xi. 110. I find by measuring my *Wheat Ridges in the Spring, that none of them are quite a Foot High.
1860. R. S. Hawker, in Life (1905), 323. No one ever remembers the aspect of the wheat-ridges so mournfully unpromising.
1382. Wyclif, Judges xv. 1. Whanne the dais of *whete ripynge stooden yn.
1855. Poultry Chron., III. 343. *Wheat-screenings, cracked corn,… or buckwheat, may be added to their diet.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 309. The … *Wheat-seed Plough.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXVI. 225. He … had worked with other horses all the wheat-seed time.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 724. Certaine waxe candles, which euer and onely they vsed to light in *wheat-seeding.
1729. P. Walkden, Diary (1866), 44. When he ended his wheat seeding.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 946/1. *Wheat Separator. The separation of mustard, cockle, and grass seed from the wheat is effected by passing the mixed grains over inclined plates perforated with holes.
c. 1530. in Gutch, Coll. Cur., II. 329. Item a greate Bason withe a *Wheyte Sheffe in the bottom.
1600. Nashe, Summers Last Will, Wks. (Grosart), VI. 127. God knowes who shal pay goodman Yeomans, for his wheat sheafe.
1782. Highmore, Ramble Coast Sussex (1873), 15. Nature … shewed us her Wheatsheaf—and her Autumn Horn.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 403. A wheat-sheaf should never contain more than two or three handsful.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 375. The cones [of the kidney] which are often compressed in their centres to the well-known wheat-sheaf shape.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 390. It should be pounded till it will run through a *wheat-sieve.
1557. Tusser, 100 Points Husb., xxv. October for *wheate sowing, calleth as fast.
1825. Cobbett, Rural Rides (1885), II. 178. Wheat-sowing is yet going on, on the Wold.
1778. [W. Marshall], Minutes Agric., Digest, 126. To-day … nine men,—three boys,—three teams,—and four carriages, have made a very handsome *Wheat-Stack of eighteen harvest loads.
1577. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., I. 28. The stalke or steale thereof [sc. of rye] is smaller then the *Wheate stalke.
1733. Tull, Horse-hoeing Husb., xiii. 158. The lower parts of the Wheat-stalks must receive the greater share of Heat.
1880. Meredith, Phoebus with Admetus, iv. Stately stood the wheatstalk, with head bent high.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 109/2. Amylon,… *wheatestarch.
1854. Pereira’s Polarized Light (ed. 2), 154. Tapioca-meal, Last Indian arrow-root … wheat-starch.
14[?]. Stockholm Med. MS., ii. 755, in Anglia, XVIII. 325. His stalke is gret as *whete-stro.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 27. The wheate strawe, that they pourpose to make thacke of.
1789. T. Wright, Meth. Watering Meadows (1790), 43. The hay is almost as long, coarse, and dry, as wheat-straw.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 90. 100 sheaves of wheat-straw reed.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 303. It is … said that Wheat-straw may be melted into a colourless glass with the blow-pipe.
1760. R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, II. 48. They plough in the *wheat stubble in December.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 337. The wheat stubbles are ploughed as soon as the wheat sowing is over.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 330. The *wheat-threave consists of twenty-eight sheaves.
1862. T. W. Harris, Insects injur. Veget. (ed. 3), 83. The true grain-weevil or *wheat-weevil of Europe. Ibid., 453. They have been called *wheat-worms, gray worms, and brown weevils…. The name of grain-worms has likewise sometimes been applied to them.
Hence Wheatless a., having no wheat.
1852. Leicester Chron., 17 July, 1/6. There must have been some large wheatless tract.
1868. Lynch, Rivulet, CXXXVII. iii. I opened many a … book,… But all the leaves were wheatless straws.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 336. The laity look on while theologians thrash their wheatless straw.
1917. Times, 30 May, 3/4. What will be the attitude of those portions of Greece which rallied to the allied cause if they remain wheatless.
