graze

graze
\ \ [OE] There is no difficulty about the etymology of grazefeed on grass’: it was formed in Old English times as a derivative of the noun græs (modern English grass). But what about graze in the sense ‘scrape lightly’, first recorded in the 17th century? In the absence of any convincing alternative candidates, it is usually taken to be simply a special use of grazefeed on grass’, in the sense ‘remove grass close to the ground’, as some animals do in grazing – like a ‘close shave’, in fact.
\ \ Cf.GRASS

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Graze — Graze, v. i. 1. To eat grass; to feed on growing herbage; as, cattle graze on the meadows. [1913 Webster] 2. To yield grass for grazing. [1913 Webster] The ground continueth the wet, whereby it will never graze to purpose. Bacon. [1913 Webster] 3 …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Graze — (gr[=a]z), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Grazed} (gr[=a]zd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Grazing}.] [OE. grasen, AS. grasian, fr. gr[ae]s grass. See {Grass}.] 1. To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for. [1913 Webster] A field or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Graze — Graze, n. 1. The act of grazing; the cropping of grass. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster] Turning him out for a graze on the common. T. Hughes. [1913 Webster] 2. A light touch; a slight scratch. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • graze — Ⅰ. graze [1] ► VERB 1) (of cattle, sheep, etc.) eat grass in a field. 2) informal eat frequent snacks at irregular intervals. DERIVATIVES grazer noun. ORIGIN Old English, related to GRASS(Cf. ↑ …   English terms dictionary

  • graze — vb pasture, *feed, nourish graze vb *brush, glance, shave, skim Analogous words: touch, contact (see corresponding nouns at CONTACT): injure, hurt, harm: *deface, disfigure: wound, bruise, contuse (see corresponding nouns at WOUND) …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • graze — graze·able; graze; …   English syllables

  • graze — [v1] touch abrade, brush, carom, chafe, glance off, kiss*, ricochet, rub, scrape, scratch, shave*, skim, skip; concept 612 Ant. manhandle graze [v2] feed on bite, browse, champ, crop, crunch, eat, forage, gnaw, masticate, munch, nibble, pasture,… …   New thesaurus

  • graze — index contact (touch) Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • grąžė — sf. žr. grąža 3: Ar sodinsime bulves grąžėse? Nj …   Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language

  • graze — graze1 [grāz] vt. grazed, grazing [ME grasen < OE grasian < base of græs, gærs, GRASS] 1. to feed on (growing grass, herbage, a pasture, etc.) 2. to put livestock to feed on (growing grass, herbage, etc.) 3. to tend (feeding livestock) …   English World dictionary

  • graze — {{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}} noun ADJECTIVE ▪ minor, slight, small VERB + GRAZE ▪ have, suffer ▪ She suffered only minor grazes in the crash …   Collocations dictionary

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