Forage
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: /ˈfɒɹᵻdʒ/
- US IPA: /ˈfɔɹᵻdʒ/, /ˈfɑɹᵻdʒ/, /ˈfoɚdʒ/
- Homophones: forge some American accents
Origin
From Middle English, from Old French fourage, forage, a derivative of fuerre ("fodder, straw"), of origin, from Frankish *fÅdar ("fodder, sheath"), from Proto-Germanic *fÅdrÄ… ("fodder, feed, sheath"), from Proto-Indo-European *patrom ("fodder"), *pat- ("to feed"), *pÄy- ("to guard, graze, feed"). Cognate with Old High German fuotar (German Futter ("fodder, feed")), Old English fÅdor, fÅþor ("food, fodder, covering, case, basket"), Dutch voeder ("forage, food, feed"), Danish foder ("fodder, feed"), Icelandic fóðr ("fodder, sheath"). More at fodder, food.
Full definition of forage
Noun
forage
(plural forages)- Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
- 1819, Walter Scott, :“The hermit was apparently somewhat moved to compassion by the anxiety as well as address which the stranger displayed in tending his horse; for, muttering something about provender left for the keeper's palfrey, he dragged out of a recess a bundle of forage, which he spread before the knight's charger.
- An act or instance of foraging.
- ShakespeareHe lion from forage will incline to play.
- MarshallMawhood completed his forage unmolested.
- 1860 September, “A Chapter on Ratsâ€, in The Knickerbocker, volume 56, number 3, page 304:‘My dears,’ he discourses to them — how he licks his gums, long toothless, as he speaks of his forages into the well-stored cellars: ...
- (obsolete) The demand for fodder etc by an army from the local population
Verb
- To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.
- 1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer, Chapter 8:The message said that the party intended to hunt and forage through this region, for a month or two, afore it went back into the Canadas.
- To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 1, Scene 2:And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince,
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility. - To rummage.
- 1898, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrecker:Using the blankets for a basket, we sent up the books, instruments, and clothes to swell our growing midden on the deck; and then Nares, going on hands and knees, began to forage underneath the bed.