grazing

Verb

graze (third-person singular simple present grazes, present participle grazing, simple past and past participle grazed)

1. (transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.
   • He hath a Houſe and Barn in repair, a Field or two to graze his Cows, with a Garden and Orchard.1732 March 6 (Gregorian calendar; date written), [Jonathan Swift], Considerations upon Two Bills Sent Down from the R[ight] H[onourable] the H[ouse] of L[ords] to the H[onoura]ble H[ouse] of C[ommons...
2. (ambitransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture)
   • Cattle graze in the meadows.
3. (transitive) To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.
   • Shylock: When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheepc. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
4. (intransitive) To eat small amounts of food periodically throughout the day, rather than at fixed mealtimes, often not in response to hunger.
   • Furthermore, people who take the time to sit down to proper meals find their food more satisfying than people who graze throughout the day. If you skip meals, you will inevitably end up snacking on more high-fat high-sugar foods.2008, Mohgah Elsheikh, Caroline Murphy, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
5. To shoplift by consuming food or drink items before reaching the checkout.
   • Grazing refers to customers who consume food items before paying for them, for example, a customer bags one and a half pounds of grapes in the produce department, eats some as she continues her shopping […]1992, Shoplifting, page 18
6. (transitive) To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing.
   • the bullet grazed the wall

   Synonyms:

   glance

See all 11 meanings of graze