dial. Also cow-quakers.
1. A popular name of Quaking-grass, Briza media.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. 87. Phalaris pratensis is called also Gramen tremulum … about Nantwich, Quakers and Shakers; in some places Cow-quakes.
1690. Ray, Synopsis (Britten & Holl.), Gramen tremulum cow-quakes dictum producit.
1711. J. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 380. Great Spanish Cowquakes.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1752), 280. The cow-quake grass, or gramen tremulum … is no indication of poor land.
1777. J. Lightfoot, Flora Scot., I. 99. Cow-quakes, Quaking Grass.
1879. in Shropshire Word-bk.
2. According to Halliwell and Wright, a name in the East of England of Common Spurry.
