• (n. pl.) Dried grain, as oats or wheat, hulled and broken or crushed; in high milling, cracked fragments of wheat larger than grits. Found on http://thinkexist.com/dictionary/meaning/groats/
Groats noun plural [ Middle English grot , Anglo-Saxon grātan ; akin to Icelandic grautr porridge, and to English gritt , grout . See Grout .] Dried grain, as oats or wheat, hulled and broken or crushed; in high milling, cracked fragments of wheat large... Found on http://www.encyclo.co.uk/webster/G/60
Groats are the seeds of oats prepared as an article of food by being deprived of their hulls. They were much used in the preparation of gruel for invalids during the Victorian era. Found on http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/QG.HTM