grasseater

See also: grass-eater

English

Etymology

grass + eater. Originally in reference to the Irish potato famine, implying that grass was all the Irish had left in their diet.

Noun

grasseater (plural grasseaters)

  1. (offensive, slang, ethnic slur) A white person, especially an Irishman.
    • 2002, Jan Pottker, Janet and Jackie: The Story of a Mother and Her Daughter, page 12:
      When the "green mouths," as the impoverished Irish grasseaters were dubbed, entered the United States, they brought cholera, consumption, and typhus with them.
  2. A law enforcement official who accepts bribes
  3. A herbivore or similar grazing animal
    • 2010, Anwar A Abdullah, East West - Sword and Word, page 289:
      And most of those grasseaters like horses, ox, camels, and llamas had shown early appearance on earth and since its early Cainozoic.
  4. (derogatory) A vegetarian or vegan
    • 2009, Robert I. C. Fisher, Fodor's Switzerland, page 51:
      Founded in 1898, when vegetarians were regarded as “grasseaters,” this restaurant has more than proved its staying power.
  5. (derogatory) A person, especially a Japanese man, who is uninterested in sex or romance.

References

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