grass

Grass is the soft green carpet of thin leaves that covers parks and lawns. Cut short, and growing again by Friday.

It is a mass noun, so you cut the grass rather than the grasses, though botanists do use the plural for the many species. The word gives English a good deal: grassroots means at the ordinary local level, and the grass is always greener names the belief that other people have it better. British slang has an entirely separate sense, since to grass on somebody is to inform on them to the police.

Phrases it lives in

• the grass is always greener — other people's situations always look better than your own