forage
/ˈfoɹɪd͡ʒ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.12 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The demand for fodder, etc., by an army from the local population.
Countable; Obsolete; Uncountable
verb
To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.
verb
To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.
verb
To rummage.
Example Sentences
- "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 charger."
- "To invade the corn, and to their cells convey / The plundered forage of their yellow prey"
- "He [the lion] from forage will incline to play."
- "[Charles] Mawhood completed his forage unmolested, and returned to Philadelphia."
- "‘My dears,’ he discourses to them — how he licks his gums, long toothless, as he speaks of his forages into the well-stored cellars: […]"
- "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."
Etymology
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfoɹɪd͡ʒ/
- British English: /ˈfɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Food.