Rye n.
1. Bot. A grain yielded by a hardy cereal grass (Secale cereale), closely allied to wheat; also, the plant itself. Rye constitutes a large portion of the breadstuff used by man.
2. A disease in a hawk.
Rye grass, Italian rye grass, Bot. See under Grass. See also Ray grass, and Darnel.
Wild rye Bot., any plant of the genus Elymus, tall grasses with much the appearance of rye.
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Secale cereale
n : hardy annual cereal grass widely cultivated in northern
Europe where its grain is the chief ingredient of black
bread and in North America for forage and soil
improvement [syn: rye]