Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon

A.stalk, esp. the stalk or straw of corn, metaph. in Hom., αἶψά τε φυλόπιδος πέλεται κόρος ἀνθρώποισιν, ἧς τε πλείστην μὲν καλάμην Χθονὶ Χαλκὸς ἔχευεν, ἄμητος δ᾽ ὀλίγιστος, i.e. when there is much straw and little harvest, much slaughter and little profit, Il.19.222; κ. πυρῶν wheat-straw, Hdt.4.33; “σῖτος σὺν τῇ καλάμῃ ἀποκείμενος” X.An.5.4.27; “καλάμαν τε καὶ ἱερὰ δράγματα . . ἀσταχύων” Call.Cer.20; prov. of a greedy farmer, πυροὺς ἐπὶ καλάμῃ ἀροῦν to exhaust ground by one corn-crop after another, Lys.Fr.77: pl., σῖτος ἐπὶ ταῖς κ. D.H.5.13.

2. stubble, Arist.Mete.341b27, PSI4.380.6 (iii B.C.), 1 Ep.Cor.3.12, etc.: metaph., of an old man, καλάμην γέ σ᾽ ὀΐομαι εἰσορόωντα γιγνώσκειν thou mayst still, I ween, perceive the stubble (i.e. the residue) of former strength, Od.14.214; “τὸ γῆρας καλάμη” Arist.Rh.1410b14; “τὴν κ. δωρῇ, δοὺς ἑτέροις τὸ θέρος” AP11.36 (Phil.); Ῥήσου κ. the remains of Rhesus, i.e. his corpse, Orac. ap. Polyaen.6.53; ἀπὸ τῆς κ. τεκμαίρεσθαι to judge from the remains, Luc.Alex.5.

3. κολχὶς κ., = λίνον, Call.Fr.265.

II. = κάλαμος, Hld.8.9.