graze
/ɡɹeɪz/ noun, verb
- noun The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.
- noun A light abrasion; a slight scratch.
- noun The act of animals feeding from pasture.
- verb (transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.
- verb (ambitransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture) “Cattle graze in the meadows.”
- verb (transitive) To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.
- verb (intransitive) To eat small amounts of food periodically throughout the day, rather than at fixed mealtimes, often not in response to hunger.
- verb To shoplift by consuming food or drink items before reaching the checkout.
- verb (transitive) To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing. “the bullet grazed the wall”
- verb (transitive) To cause a slight wound to; to scratch. “to graze one's knee”
- verb (intransitive) To yield grass for grazing.
Synonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English grasen (“to feed with grass”), from Old English grasian, from Proto-West Germanic *grasōn, from Proto-Germanic *grasōną, from *grasą (“grass”) + *-ōną (verbal suffix). Doublet of grass.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for. A field or two to graze his cows. Swift.
- verb To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture); to browse.
- verb To eat grass; to feed on growing herbage; as, cattle graze on the meadows.
- verb To yield grass for grazing. The ground cortinueth the wet, whereby it will never graze to purpose. Bacon.
Etymology [imp. & p. p. Grazed (p. pr. & vb. n. Grazing.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “graze”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details