groat

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɹoʊt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɹəʊt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ɡɹɔːt/[1]
• Rhymes: -əʊt

From Middle English grot, from Old English grot, from Proto-West Germanic *grot, from Proto-Germanic *grutą. More at grit, grout.

groat (countable and uncountable, plural groats)

1. (chiefly in the plural) Hulled grain, chiefly hulled oats.

• Embden groats

• grit, grits
• grout, grouts
• gruel
• meal
• semolina

Possibly from Middle Dutch groot, the Old French gros Tournois (“a coin of Tours”), from English denarius grossus (“large”). Related to German Groschen.

groat (plural groats)

1. (archaic or historical) Any of various old coins of England and Scotland.
   • 1593, anonymous, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

     The Widdow that hath but a pan of braſſe,
     And ſcarſe a houſe to hide her head,
     Sometimes no penny to buy her bread,
     Muſt pay her Landlord many a groat,
     Or twil be puld out of her throat:

2. A historical English silver coin worth four English pennies, still minted as one of the set of Maundy coins.
   • c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlo[we], Tho[mas] Heywood, editor, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Ievv of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, OCLC 1121318438, Act I:

     The needy groom, that never finger'd groat,
     Would make a miracle of thus much coin …

3. A proverbial small sum; a whit or jot.

• Groat (coin) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Argot, RATOG, argot, gator, gotra