forage
UK/ˈfɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ//ˈfoɹɪd͡ʒ/
forage noun: fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
Noun
forage (countable and uncountable, plural forages)
- Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
- 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...1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co....
- To invade the corn, and to their cells convey / The plundered forage of their yellow prey1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- An act or instance of foraging.
- He [the lion] from forage will incline to play.c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- [Charles] Mawhood completed his forage unmolested, and returned to Philadelphia.1805, John Marshall, chapter VIII, in The Life of George Washington, […], volume III, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] C. P. Wayne, →OCLC, page 439
- The demand for fodder, etc., by an army from the local population.
Verb
forage (third-person singular simple present forages, present participle foraging, simple past and past participle foraged)
- To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.
- 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.1841, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 8, in The Deerslayer
- To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.
- 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.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- To rummage.
- 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.1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, “The Cabin of the ‘Flying Scud’”, in The Wrecker, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, […], →OCLC, page 218
- Of an animal: to seek out and eat food.
forage meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
forage in Hindi
- forage
- चरनी carnī
forage in Tamil
- மேய்ச்சல் தேடு, மேய், நார்த் தீவனம், தீனி, தீவனம்
forage in Urdu
- چارہ, چارا مہیا کرنا, لوٹنا, رسد کاٹ دینا
forage in Bengali
- খাদ্য সন্ধান করা, খোঁজাখুঁজি করা
More languagesFewer languages
- forage in Malayalam
- നാൽക്കാലിത്തീറ്റ, ഇര, ഭക്ഷണസാധനങ്ങൾ, കൊള്ളയടി
- forage in Kannada
- ಮೇವು, ದನಗಳ ಆಹಾರ, ಮೇವನ್ನು ಸಂಗ್ರಹಿಸು, ಮೇವನ್ನೊದಗಿಸು
Examples of forage in a sentence
- A garbologist forages through waste paper baskets in search of interesting documents.
- A few of the triodias are good forage grasses, but others are of little value.
- We seeded the meadow with ryegrass to provide better forage.
Forms of forage
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | forages |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | forages |
| present participle | foraging |
| past participle | foraged |
| past | foraged |
Origin of forage
From Middle English forage, from Old French fourage, forage, a derivative of fuerre (“fodder, straw”), from Frankish *fōdar (“fodder, sheath”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“fodder, feed, sheath”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, to feed”). Cognate with Old High German fuotar (German Futter (“fodder, feed”)), Old English fōdor, fōþer (“food, fodder, covering, case, basket”), Dutch voeder (“forage, food, feed”), Danish foder (“fodder, feed”), Icelandic fóðr (“fodder, sheath”). More at fodder, food. Unrelated to modern French forage (“drilling”), whose first element is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to pierce”).
Words formed from forage
Phrases with forage
Words that rhyme with forage
Questions about forage
- What does forage mean?
- Forage means fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
- What is forage in Hindi?
- Forage in Hindi is चरनी (carnī). See Forage meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is forage?
- Forage can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce forage?
- Forage is pronounced /ˈfɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of forage?
- The plural of forage is forages.
Words near forage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: forage (page history and authors); चरनी (Hindi) (page history and authors); forage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); forage (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Forage (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); forage (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); forage (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
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Cite this entry: “forage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.