graze

From Old English grasian (“to feed on grass”), from græs (“grass”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹeɪz/

• Audio (US)

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• Homophones: grays, greys
• Rhymes: -eɪz

graze (plural grazes)

1. The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.
2. A light abrasion; a slight scratch.
3. The act of animals feeding from pasture.
   • 1904, Empire Review, volume 6, page 188:

     If it be sundown, when the herds are returning from their daily graze in the long grass of the jungle, clouds of dust will be marking their track along every approach to the village […]

graze (third-person singular simple present grazes, present participle grazing, simple past and past participle grazed)

1. (transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.
   • 1732 March 6 (Gregorian calendar; date written), [Jonathan Swift], Considerations upon Two Bills Sent Down from the R[ight] H[onourable] the H[ouse] of L[ords] to the H[onoura]ble H[ouse] of C[ommons of Ireland] Relating to the Clergy of I[relan]d, London: […] A. Moore, […], published 1732, →OCLC, page 24:

     He hath a Houſe and Barn in repair, a Field or tvvo to graze his Covvs, vvith a Garden and Orchard.

   • 1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust:

     Although it is perfectly good meadowland, none of the villagers has ever grazed animals on the meadow on the other side of the wall.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture)

   Cattle graze in the meadows.

   • 1712 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue, in Imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, H. Lintot, J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, and S. Draper, published 1751, →OCLC, page 41, lines 77–78:

     The lambs vvith vvolves ſhall graze the verdant mead, / And boys in flovv'ry bands the tyger lead; […]

   • 1993, John Montroll, Origami Inside-Out, page 41:

     The bird [Canada goose] is more often found on land than other waterfowl because of its love for seeds and grains. The long neck is well adapted for grazing.

3. (transitive) To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

     Shylock: When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep

4. (intransitive) To eat small amounts of food periodically throughout the day, rather than at fixed mealtimes, often not in response to hunger.

   Coordinate term: snack

   • 2008, Mohgah Elsheikh, Caroline Murphy, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome:

     Furthermore, people who take the time to sit down to proper meals find their food more satisfying than people who graze throughout the day. If you skip meals, you will inevitably end up snacking on more high-fat high-sugar foods.

   • 2018 July 24, Anahad O’Connor, “When We Eat, or Don’t Eat, May Be Critical for Health”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Many people, however, snack and graze from roughly the time they wake up until shortly before they go to bed.

5. To shoplift by consuming food or drink items before reaching the checkout.
   • 1992, Shoplifting, page 18:

     Grazing refers to customers who consume food items before paying for them, for example, a customer bags one and a half pounds of grapes in the produce department, eats some as she continues her shopping […]

   • 2001, Labor Arbitration Information System, volume 2, page 59:

     Had the Grievant attempted to pay for the Mylanta or actually paid for it, then she would not be guilty of grazing or shoplifting.

6. (transitive) To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing.

   the bullet grazed the wall

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXIII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through.

7. (transitive) To cause a slight wound to; to scratch.

   to graze one's knee

8. (intransitive) To yield grass for grazing.
   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     The sewers must be kept so as the water may not stay too long in the spring; for then the ground continueth the wet, whereby it will never graze to purpose that year.

• Earth-grazing
• grazing fire
• overgraze

• Garzê, Zager, gazer

graze

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of grazen