grazen.
/ɡreɪz/, U.S. /ɡreɪz/ 1. An act or instance of grazing, touching lightly, or rubbing against, a surface in passing: said esp. of shot; also, ‘the point at which a shot strikes and rebounds from earth or water’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1867).
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > progressive motion > specific manner of progressive motion > [noun] > lightly along or near a surface
graze1692
sweep1820
skima1851
skiffing1866
skitter1905
1692 Smith's Sea-mans Gram. (new ed.) ii. xxvi. 144 The Graze of the Bullet at the first Shot.
1864 Daily Tel. 7 June Dividing the sum of all the distances, taken from the muzzle to the first graze.
1876 Daily News 30 Sept. 2/2 Common shell..which gave a range of about 3,000 yards at the first graze.
1879 R. A. Proctor Pleasant Ways Sci. v. 112 All successive grazes [of a ray of light] would be indicated to us by accessions of lustre.
1899 Speaker 11 Nov. 133/1 The difficulty is..to secure a fuze sufficiently delicate to act on graze.
2. A superficial wound or abrasion, caused by an object rubbing against the skin of the body.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > [noun] > scratch or graze
scarta1585
scratcha1586
ranch1611
chalk1840
graze1847
gravel-rash1860
rope burn1880
road rash1892
1847 Illustr. London News 10 July 30/1 A few grazes and bruises were all the evils.
1891 E. Peacock Narcissa Brendon I. 151 Quite a slight wound, just a graze of the arm.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
grazev.1
/ɡreɪz/, U.S. /ɡreɪz/ 1.
a. intransitive. Chiefly of cattle: To feed on growing grass and other herbage.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eating by animals > feed (of animals) [verb (intransitive)] > graze
grazec1000
c1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 200 [Se þe] oxan grasiende gesihþ sige ceapas [read ceapes] getacnað.
1390 J. Gower Confessio Amantis I. 142 Lich an oxe under the fote He graseth.
c1430 J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1840) 121 Nature hathe..Ordeyned..Sheepe in theyr pasture to grase day and nyght.
1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie ii. viii. 40 b Driving them [partridges] in the daye time too goe grase in the mountaynes.
1624 J. Smith Gen. Hist. Virginia iv. 111 Our Hogs and Cattell haue twentie miles circuit to graze in securely.
1785 W. Cowper Task vi. 774 The lion, and the libbard, and the bear Graze with the fearless flocks.
1837 W. Irving Adventures Capt. Bonneville I. 102 The poor jaded horses were turned out to graze.
1879 J. Stainer Music of Bible 2 The god..found a mountain tortoise grazing near his grotto.
1894 J. T. Fowler in St. Adamnan Vita S. Columbae Introd. 51 The cows that grazed in the monastic pastures.
b. Proverb.
ΚΠ
1509 A. Barclay Brant's Shyp of Folys (Pynson) f. cc Suche as they moste gladly dede wolde haue Etyth of that gose that graseth on theyr graue.
1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. C3v The Goose that graseth on the greene, quoth he, May I eate on, when you shall buryed be.
1632 in R. F. Williams Birch's Court & Times Charles I (1848) (modernized text) II. 177 He looks fresh, and enjoys his health..so that if any other prelate do gape after his benefice, his grace, perhaps, according to that old and homely proverb, [may] eat of the goose which shall graze upon his grave.
2. transferred and figurative.
Thesaurus »
a. ‘To move on devouring’ (Johnson). ? Obsolete.
b. humorously of persons: To feed. Also to send to graze: to send packing, turn out.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eat [verb (intransitive)]
eatc825
to break breadeOE
baitc1386
feeda1387
to take one's repast?1490
to take repast1517
repast1520
peck?1536
diet1566
meat1573
victual1577
graze1579
manger1609
to craw it1708
grub1725
scoff1798
browse1818
provender1819
muckamuck1853
to put on the nosebag1874
refect1882
restaurate1882
nosh1892
tucker1903
to muck in1919
scarf1960
snack1972
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Sept. 113 Sike mischiefe graseth hem emong.
1597 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet iii. v. 188 Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. View more context for this quotation
a1626 F. Bacon Considerations War with Spain (1629) 10 As euery State lay next to the other that was oppressed, so the fire perpetually grazed.
1675 T. Turner Case Bankers & Creditors (ed. 3) 35 This Wildfire..had now grazed almost throughout the whole Realm.
1733 J. Swift Legion Club 215 Will you, in your faction's phrase, Send the clergy all to graze?
1824 Countess Granville Lett. (1894) I. 304 Mr. Drummond..does no harm grazing at the bottom of a long table.
1872 Earl of Pembroke & G. H. Kingsley South Sea Bubbles ix. 230 Mosquitoes that are grazing coolly on one's hands.
c. To eat informally, taking small quantities of food at frequent but usually irregular intervals, to snack (on); spec. to consume unpurchased foodstuffs furtively while walking around a supermarket. colloquial (originally U.S.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > taking surreptitiously > take surreptitiously [verb (intransitive)]
graze1979
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > processes or manners of eating > eat via specific process [verb (intransitive)] > snack or graze
snack1972
graze1979
1978 Advertising Age 30 Oct. 27/4 In one generation, we have gone from a traditional food producing society to a food grazing society—one where we eat wherever we happen to be.]
1979 [implied in: Daily Tel. 27 Apr. 19/8 [In America] the most sophisticated ‘grazers’ go for the expensive or exotic foods, tucking into anything that can be swiftly opened and gulped down in the aisles. (at grazer n. 2)].
1983 R. Christian in Verbatim Autumn 8/2 At night..restless spirits who prowl the pantry are ‘grazing’.
1985 New York 17 June 43/2 Yuppies do not eat. They socialize, they network, they graze or troll.
1991 Independent on Sunday 19 May 12/5 Peanut-butter sandwiches, usually eaten with jam, are a traditional and nutritious component of US school lunches. American children graze on them.
d. To obtain information or diversion by casual selection; to sample or browse, esp. by switching rapidly between television channels. colloquial.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > [verb (transitive)] > obtain information by casual selection
graze1986
society > communication > broadcasting > audience > [verb (intransitive)] > browse channels
graze1986
society > communication > broadcasting > putting on or producing broadcast > put on or produce broadcast [verb (intransitive)] > switch channel
switch1937
to turn over1958
zap1983
graze1986
1986 Times 13 June 39/4 Mel Calman, as anyone who grazes..off the front page of The Times knows, does the pocket cartoons.
1988 Chicago Tribune 31 July vi. 2/2 Both sexes are channel grazing more often. The reason: a widening spectrum of viewing options, thanks to cable TV.
1989 N.Y. Times 31 Dec. iv. 10/2 Today's Manhattanite can graze among 37 channels, and others are on the way.
3. figurative.1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1763 I. 226 (note) [Paraphrasing Johnson:] He is the richest authour that ever grazed the common of literature.† b. transferred. Said of fish. Obsolete. rare.
a. transitive. To feed on, eat (growing grass or other herbage). Chiefly poetic.
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the world > animals > by eating habits > [verb (transitive)] > graze or crop
crop1362
pasture?c1470
shear1610
graze1667
shack1904
the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > eating > eating by animals > feed on or forage for (of animals) [verb (transitive)] > graze on
pasture1434
graze1667
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 253 Flocks Grasing the tender herb. View more context for this quotation
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis vi, in tr. Virgil Wks. 388 Their Steeds around, Free from their Harness, graze the flow'ry Ground.
1712 A. Pope Messiah in Spectator No. 350 The Lambs with Wolves shall graze the verdant Mead.
1785 W. Cowper Task v. 785 Brutes graze the mountain~top with faces prone.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > fish > [verb (transitive)] > feed
graze1697
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 139 This Neptune gave him, when he gave to keep His scaly Flocks, that graze the wat'ry deep. View more context for this quotation
4. causal. To put (cattle) to feed on pasture; also, to tend while so feeding.
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the world > food and drink > food > providing or receiving food > feeding animals > [verb (transitive)] > pasture
leasowc950
feed1382
pasturec1400
grassc1500
graze1564
to put out1600
summer1601
impasture1614
depasture1713
run1767
range1816
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal keeping practices general > herding, pasturing, or confining > [verb (transitive)] > pasture
leasowc950
feed1382
pasturec1400
to put to grass1471
grassc1500
to turn out?1523
graze1564
impasture1614
put1620
depasture1713
run1767
to run out1851
1564 A. Golding tr. Justinus Hist. Trogus Pompeius ii. f. 10v They feede and graze theyr cattell, wanderyng through the desertes.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice i. iii. 70 When Iacob grazd his Vncle Labans Sheepe. View more context for this quotation
1613 G. Wither Epithal. in Juvenilia (1633) 372 We drive our flocks a field to graze them.
1707 J. Archdale New Descr. Carolina 31 A Cow is grased near as cheap as a Sheep here in England.
1837 J. R. McCulloch Statist. Acct. Brit. Empire I. i. i. 202 Great numbers of cattle, and of long-woolled sheep, are grazed in the fens.
1869 H. Fawcett Man. Polit. Econ. (ed. 3) ii. viii. 223 Labourers who have been accustomed to graze a cow..upon a common.
5. intransitive or (absol.) To pasture cattle.
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the world > food and drink > food > providing or receiving food > feeding animals > [verb (intransitive)] > pasture animals
leasowc950
grazec1645
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal keeping practices general > herding, pasturing, or confining > [verb (intransitive)] > pasture animals
leasowc950
go1472
grazec1645
c1645 I. Tullie Narr. Siege of Carlisle (1840) 34 Capt Philipson jun. grased in the same place.
1660 R. Sharrock Hist. Propagation & Improvem. Veg. 21 A delicate grasse..upon which..you may graze with cattle or horse.
1668 Ormonde MSS in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. v. 79 Your petitioners, and those that grase with them, have..noe way to bring their cattell to the markett.
1892 D. Jordan Within Hour of London xiii. 266 My own friends, who grazed on the marshes.
6. transitive. To put cattle to feed on (grass, land, etc.); †to graze up, to exhaust by grazing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > management of pasture > use as pasture [verb (transitive)]
pasture1434
agista1450
graze1603
impasture1649
feeda1652
summer eat1727
stock1794
1603 R. Johnson tr. G. Botero Hist. Descr. Worlde 161 Driuing on til they haue grazed al vp.
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry 16 Some graze their Land till Christmas, and some longer.
1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1783 II. 446 Johnson: You may graze the ground when the trees are grown up.
1861 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 22 ii. 420 The young grass should not be grazed.
1880 R. Jefferies Round about Great Estate viii. 150 A pasture field..which it was believed had been grazed for fully two hundred years.
7. intransitive. Of land: To produce grass; to serve for grazing. Obsolete exc. dialect.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > grassland > produce grass [verb (intransitive)] > serve as pasture
graze1625
pasture1655
to lie shack1787
1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 262 The Quarters to Graze, being kept Shorne, but not too neare Shorne.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §600 The Ground will be like a Wood, which keepeth out the Sunne; And so continueth the Wet; Whereby it will neuer graze (to purpose) that yeare.
1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver ii. 13 The unsutable, unnaturall laying downe of Land to Graze.
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry 28 Those Lands that Graze speedily.
a1825 R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia (1830) Graze, to become covered with the growth of grass.
Derivatives
grazed adj. /ɡreɪzd/
/ɡreɪzd/ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > providing or receiving food > feeding animals > [adjective] > fed > pastured
leasoweda1425
grass-fed1575
grazed1649
the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > grassland > [adjective] > pasture
pastured1598
pastoragious1632
grazed1649
pastoral1794
torey1893
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal keeping practices general > herding, pasturing, or confining > [adjective] > pasturing > pastured
nibbled1599
grazed1649
1649 W. Blith Eng. Improver xxii. 143 Grazed Lands.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 486 Lik'ning his Maker to the Grazed Ox. View more context for this quotation
ˈgrazer n. an animal that grazes.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > by eating habits > [noun] > herbivore > that grazes
grazer1708
1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 104 After them the Cackling Goose, Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her Want.
1856 J. G. Whittier Panorama 254 Like the crowned grazer on Euphrates' shore.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
grazev.2
/ɡreɪz/, U.S. /ɡreɪz/ 1. figurative.1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas IV. xi. vii. 306 His self-love was grazed now and then.1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 644 The civil war had barely grazed the frontier of Devonshire.1887 J. C. Morison Service of Man (1889) xv How nearly we grazed a fratricidal war with our American kinsfolk..dwells in all memories.
a. transitive. To touch (a surface) lightly in passing; esp. to roughen or abrade (the skin or a part of the body) in rubbing or brushing past. Also, to suffer slight abrasion of (a part of one's body).
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > progressive motion > specific manner of progressive motion > move or cause to move progressively in specific manner [verb (transitive)] > move lightly over or along
scum1513
shave1513
sweep1538
raze1555
grazea1616
frizzle1634
brush1647
brush1674
to brush (a thing) over1700
skim1796
skiff1807
scuff1818
skitter1885
swab1892
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > injure [verb (transitive)] > scratch or graze
cratchc1320
scrat1340
cramse1440
scratch1474
crutch1481
rata1560
razea1586
gravel1608
ravel1621
graze1701
ruffle1731
skin1795
bark1850
a1616 W. Shakespeare Othello (1622) iv. i. 270 Whose solid vertue, The shot of accident, nor dart of chance Could neither graze, nor peirce? View more context for this quotation
1701 W. Kennett Cowell's Interpreter (new ed.) sig. U3va, at Grass-Hearth As we still say the Skin is gras'd or slightly hurt.
1814 W. Scott Waverley III. iv. 42 The bullet grazed the young lady's temple. View more context for this quotation
1863 F. A. Kemble Jrnl. Resid. Georgian Plantation 51 At six o'clock our little canoe grazed the steps.
1868 J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons Astron. iii. 125 Some comets..approach so close to the Sun as almost to graze its surface.
1869 H. B. Stowe Oldtown Folks (1870) xiv. 132 She fell and grazed her arm sadly.
b. Said of a ray of light; spec. To meet (a curve) tangentially.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > shine [verb (transitive)] > from a specific angle > graze lightly
graze1839
1839 G. Bird Elements Nat. Philos. 308 The luminous ray could only graze the surface of the medium abd.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxv. 178 The sun's..rays..grazing the summit of the mountain.
1863 Challis in Notices Royal Astron. Soc. XXIII. 235 Hitherto it has been supposed that a ray from a star..may pass through the atmosphere in a course which grazes, or is a tangent to, the interior globe.
c. To rub (oneself) against a surface in passing.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > progressive motion > specific manner of progressive motion > move progressively in specific manner [verb (reflexive)] > move with friction along surface
graze1870
1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood iii. 17 You..keep close to the house yourself—squeeze and graze yourself against it.
2.
a. intransitive. To move so as to touch something lightly in passing, or so as to produce slight abrasion. †In early use, of a bullet: To ricochet.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > progressive motion > specific manner of progressive motion > move progressively in specific manner [verb (intransitive)] > lightly over a surface
skim1591
graze1632
skiff1725
mirla1838
skitter1847
1632 Shakespeare's Henry V iv. iii. 105 (2nd Folio) Marke then abounding valour in our English: That being dead, like to the bullets grasing [Quartos & 1st Folio crasing], Breake out into a second course of mischiefe.
1642 T. Fuller Holy State v. i. 358 Those bullets which graze on the ground do most mischief to an army.
1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors 267 An Arrow came grazing through my hair.
1732 T. Lediard tr. J. Terrasson Life Sethos II. x. 420 The edge of the buckler..graz'd pretty hard along his arm.
1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature (1799) I. 212 So that the fresh breezes..may graze along the shores of Chili and Peru.
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. xlv. 410 Sometimes running into a berg, or grazing against its edge.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Vivien in Idylls of King 102 Faintly-venomed points Of slander, glancing here and grazing there.
b. said of a ray of light.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > shine [verb (intransitive)] > shine upon or give light > touching lightly
grazea1641
a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) 78 Then be the tops of the mountaines graised on by the beames appearing.
Derivatives
grazed adj. /ɡreɪzd/
/ɡreɪzd/ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > [adjective] > scratched or grazed
scratched1562
brushed1691
barked1884
grazed1890
rope-burned1897
1890 Daily News 13 Oct. 7/1 A slight grazed wound over the right eye.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
grazev.3
/ɡreɪz/, U.S. /ɡreɪz/ dialect.
transitive and intransitive. To fatten. Also, to weigh (a specified weight) after fattening.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal keeping practices general > [verb (transitive)] > fatten
masteOE
fatc1386
to set up1540
fatten1552
feed1552
forcea1571
cram1577
engrease1583
to raise in flesh1608
saginate1623
to stall to1764
tallow1765
stall-feed1766
graze1787
to fat off1789
to make up1794
higglea1825
finish1841
to feed off1852
steam1947
1787 W. Marshall Provincialisms in Rural Econ. Norfolk II. 380 To Graze, to fat.
1854 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 15 ii. 419 A 20 weeks' old pig will graze 7 score, and on the average they reach 20 score at 12 months' age: they have been grazed to 29 score within the 12 months.
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. Graze, 1. To fatten; to become fat—applied to cattle, but quite as much to stall-fed as to grass-fed. 2. To weigh after fattening—applied to a pig..‘I have a great sow I reckon will graze up pretty nigh thirty score.’
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1900; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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