especially: a widely cultivated cereal grass (A. sativa)
b
: a crop or plot of the oat
also: the seed of an oat —usually used in plural but singular or plural in construction
2
archaic: a reed instrument made of an oat straw
Illustration of oat
oat 1a
Phrases
feel one's oats
: to act in a newly self-confident and often self-important manner
Examples of oat in a Sentence
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This fine, fast-absorbing mist is packed with nourishing oils—like sunflower seed, grapeseed, and oat—to deeply hydrate and soften skin.—Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 12 Aug. 2025 For early morning oat lattes on the patio, Jackson Café is inside the Ottawa Art Gallery and connected to the Hotel.—Miriam Porter, Forbes.com, 11 Aug. 2025 Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared pan and then use a rubber spatula or damp fingertips to firmly press the mixture into the pan.—Bethany Thayer, Freep.com, 9 Aug. 2025 There are classic Mason jars for salads or overnight oats or glass dishes that can be easily reheated for lunches at work.—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 31 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for oat
Word History
Etymology
Middle English ote "the grain of the oat plant, the plant itself," going back to Old English āte (weak feminine noun), of uncertain origin
Note:
Old English āte has been compared with regional Dutch aate, oote "wild oats" (West and Zeeland Flanders), West Frisian and Groningen Dutch oat. (These contrast with Dutch haver, denoting cultivated oats, a reflex of the Common Germanic word for the grain.) Michiel de Vaan, in an addenda to the online etymologiebank.nl, believes that the Flanders words are semantic extensions of regional aat "food," of general Germanic origin (see eat entry 2), though this hypothesis would scarcely explain the Old English word. Jan de Vries (Nederlands Etymologisch Woordenboek, Brill, 1971) hypothesizes that the Low Country words may have been borrowed from English.
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of oat was
before the 12th century
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