fasting

UK/ˈfɑːstɪŋ//ˈfæstɪŋ/

fasting is the present participle and gerund of fast.

Noun

fasting (countable and uncountable, plural fastings)

Abstinence or mortification for religious reasons, especially abstinence from food.
- Long vigils—fastings that wore away the strength of day—prayers that banished sleep from night—hoarded vengeance, that, like a fire, consumed its abode—affections crushed to the very earth—a memory whose love was with the grave,—a faith that had coloured itself with mortal passion,—all these had...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 269–270
- Immediately after that affair Lady Wondershoot, casting about for exemplary additions to the abuse and fastings she had inflicted, issued a Ukase. She issued it first to her butler, and very suddenly, so that she made him jump.1904, H. G. Wells, The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
Abstinence from food, limiting caloric intake, for medical or health reasons, dieting.
- an obese patient while he was undergoing fasting for weight reduction1967 November 17, United States Navy Medical News Letter, volume 50, number 10, page 13

fast (third-person singular simple present fasts, present participle fasting, simple past and past participle fasted)

(intransitive) To practice religious abstinence, especially from food.
- Thou didst fast and weep for the child.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Samuel 12:21
(intransitive) To reduce or limit one's nutrition intake for medical or health reasons, to diet.
- The ideal would be to fast in a situation where you are not tempted by food1977, Suza Norton, “To get the most benefit from fasting use a body-building diet”, in Yoga Journal, Jul-Aug 1977, p. 40
(transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to abstain, especially from eating.
- At 11 weeks of age, all mice were fasted overnight and underwent gallbladder ultrasonography to determine ejection fraction.Walker et al. (2007)

plural	fastings

By surface analysis, fast + -ing.

What does fasting mean?: Fasting means abstinence or mortification for religious reasons, especially abstinence from food.
What is fasting the present participle and gerund of?: Fasting is the present participle and gerund of fast.
What part of speech is fasting?: Fasting is a noun.
How do you pronounce fasting?: Fasting is pronounced /ˈfæstɪŋ/ (US).
What is the plural of fasting?: The plural of fasting is fastings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: fasting (page history and authors); fast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-fasting.wav.

Cite this entry: “fasting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fasting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.