Adjacent Words

Millet definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MIL'LET, n. [L. milium.] A plant of the genus Milium, of several species, one of which is cultivated as an esculent grain.
The Indian millet is of the genus Holcus.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of various small-grained annual cereal and forage grasses of the genera Panicum, Echinochloa, Setaria, Sorghum, and Eleusine
2: French painter of rural scenes (1814-1875) [syn: Millet, Jean Francois Millet]
3: small seed of any of various annual cereal grasses especially Setaria italica

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English milet, from Middle French, from Old French, diminutive of mil, from Latin milium; akin to Greek melin? millet Date: 15th century 1. any of various small-seeded annual cereal and forage grasses: a. a Eurasian grass (Panicum miliaceum) cultivated for its grain which is used for food b. any of several grasses related to common millet 2. the seed of a millet

Merriam Webster's

biographical name Jean-François 1814-1875 French painter

Britannica Concise

French painter. Born to a peasant family near Cherbourg, he studied with a painter in Paris, but when one of his two submissions to the Salon was rejected (1840), he returned to Cherbourg, where initially he painted mostly portraits. His first success came with The Milkmaid (1844), and in 1848 another peasant scene, The Winnower, was shown at the Salon. In 1849 he settled in the village of Barbizon. Because he continued to exhibit peasant scenes that emphasized the labors of rustic life, he was accused of being a socialist, but his aims were not political. His Angelus (1859) became one of the most popular paintings of the 19th cent. Because he later turned to landscape, he is often linked with the Barbizon school.

Britannica Concise

Turkish autonomous religious community under the Ottoman empire (c.1300-1923). Millets were responsible to the central government for such obligations as taxes and internal security. Each millet also had responsibility for social and administrative functions not provided by the state. Beginning in 1856, a series of secular legal reforms eroded much of their administrative autonomy. See also Tanzimat..Any of various grasses (family Poaceae, or Gramineae), that produce small edible seeds used as forage crops and as food cereals. Most millets range in height from 1 to 4 ft (0.3 to 1.3 m). Except for pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum, or P. americanum), seeds remain enclosed in hulls after threshing. Cultivated in China since at least the 3rd millennium BC, millets are today an important food staple in much of Asia, Russia, and W Africa. High in carbohydrates, they are somewhat strong in taste and cannot be made into leavened bread, so they are consumed mainly in flatbreads and porridges or prepared and eaten much like rice. In the U.S. and W Europe they are used chiefly for pasture or to produce hay.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 any of various cereal plants, esp. Panicum miliaceum, bearing a large crop of small nutritious seeds. 2 the seed of this. Phrases and idioms: millet-grass a tall woodland grass, Milium effusum. Etymology: ME f. F, dimin. of mil f. L milium

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Millet Mil"let, n. [F., dim. of mil, L. milium; akin to Gr. ?, AS. mil.] (Bot.) The name of several cereal and forage grasses which bear an abundance of small roundish grains. The common millets of Germany and Southern Europe are Panicum miliaceum, and Setaria Italica.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Note: Arabian millet is Sorghum Halepense. Egyptian or East Indian, millet is Penicillaria spicata. Indian millet is Sorghum vulgare. (See under Indian.) Italian millet is Setaria Italica, a coarse, rank-growing annual grass, valuable for fodder when cut young, and bearing nutritive seeds; -- called also Hungarian grass. Texas millet is Panicum Texanum. Wild millet, or Millet grass, is Milium effusum, a tail grass growing in woods.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(millets) Millet is a cereal crop that is grown for its seeds or for hay. N-MASS

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Heb. dohan; only in Ezek. 4:9), a small grain, the produce of the Panicum miliaceum of botanists. It is universally cultivated in the East as one of the smaller corn-grasses. This seed is the cenchros of the Greeks. It is called in India warree, and by the Arabs dukhan, and is extensively used for food, being often mixed with other grain. In this country it is only used for feeding birds.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mil'-et, mil'-it (dochan; kegchros): One of the ingredients of the prophet's bread (Eze 4:9). The Arabic equivalent is dukhn, the common millet, Panicum miliaceum, an annual grass 3 or 4 ft. high with a much-branched nodding panicle. Its seeds arc as small as mustard seeds and are used largely for feeding small birds, but are sometimes ground to flour and mixed with other cereals for making bread. The Italian millet, setaria Italica, known as Bengal grass, is also called in Arabic dukhn, and has a similar seed. A somewhat similar grain, much more widely cultivated as a summer crop, is the Indian millet--also called "Egyptian maize"--the Sorghum annuum. This is known as dhurah in Arabic, and the seed as dhurah beida, "white dourra." It is a very important crop, as it, like the common millet, grows and matures without any rain. It is an important breadstuff among the poor.

Both the common millet and the dourra were cultivated in Egypt in very ancient times; the Hebrew dochan was certainly the first, but may include all three varieties.

E. W. G. Masterman

Moby Thesaurus

breakfast food, cereal, cornflakes, dry cereal, farina, frumenty, grits, gruel, hasty pudding, hominy grits, hot cereal, kasha, loblolly, mush, oatmeal, porridge, puffed rice, puffed wheat, rolled oats, wheatflakes