meadow

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

In New England this word means exclusively grass land, which is moist or subject to being overflowed; and land which is not so, is called upland. In England, also, the term meadow is used among agriculturists in the limited sense above mentioned.--Pickering.


A tract of low land. In America, the word is applied particularly to the low ground on the banks of rivers, consisting of a rich mould or alluvial soil, whether grass-land, pasture, tillage, or wood land; as, the meadows on the banks of the Connecticut. The word with us does not imply necessarily wet land. This species of land is called in the Western States, bottoms or bottom-land. The word is also used for other low or flat lands, particularly lands appropriated to the culture of grass.--Webster.

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