forage

noun

for·age | \ ˈfȯr-ij

, ˈfär-\

Definition of forage

(Entry 1 of 2)

1 : food for animals especially when taken by browsing or grazing The grass serves as forage for livestock.

2 [ ²forage ] : the act of foraging : search for provisions They made forages to find food.

forage

verb

foraged; foraging

Definition of forage (Entry 2 of 2)

transitive verb

1 : to strip of provisions : collect forage from

2 : to secure by foraging foraged a chicken for the feast

intransitive verb

1 : to wander in search of forage or food

2 : to secure forage (as for horses) by stripping the country

3 : ravage, raid

4 : to make a search : rummage

Other Words from forage Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about forage

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Synonyms for forage

Synonyms: Verb

browse, graze, pasture, rustle

Examples of forage in a Sentence

Noun

The grass serves as forage for livestock.

Verb

The cows were foraging in the pasture. He had to forage for firewood.

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Seabird experts wonder whether the presence of more pollock and Pacific cod, which have voracious appetites and are far more efficient hunters of forage fish than seabirds, was a factor. — Dan Joling, The Seattle Times, "Pace of Bering Sea changes startles scientists," 16 Apr. 2019 Geese have also been enjoying the gardens and a new flower meadow will be installed later this week to provide extra forage for bees and other pollinator insects. — Sara Rodrigues, House Beautiful, "Buckingham Palace Is In Bloom: How The Royals Are Celebrating Spring," 21 Mar. 2019 The idea began a little over a year ago, when a friend of Crutchfield's wanted to involve her in an event at Swale, a floating, forage-able barge at Brooklyn's army terminal. — Hadley Keller, House Beautiful, "This Artist Makes Gorgeous Weavings Using Wildflowers—and You Can, too," 17 Apr. 2019 Each ant has a job, and each ant sticks to its job: the foragers forage, the workers work, the nurses nurse, the queen procreates. — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, "Sick ants stay away from the kids," 26 Nov. 2018 Wearing camouflage and orange hats and vests, the hunters spread out to stands in trees and waited for deer to forage at dusk. — Zusha Elinson, WSJ, "Put Down the Kombucha and Pick Up a Crossbow: Hipsters Are the New Hunters," 9 Jan. 2019 For a time, the young venture out to forage but still keep coming home, making them even more like mammals. — Diana Gitig, Ars Technica, "Soy milk, almond milk, oat milk. Spider milk?," 30 Nov. 2018 Some areas where homes are close to parks or forests, such as Aberdeen in Hong Kong Island’s south, have become popular spots for growing numbers of boars to forage for food amid the garbage cans. — Alice Fung, The Seattle Times, "In year of the pig, Hong Kong has had enough of wild ones," 6 Feb. 2019 In this photo taken on Friday March 16, 2018 a pangolin from the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital is held by a carer before being taken to the field to forage for food, near Johannesburg. — Washington Post, "In South Africa, plans for a refuge for pangolins in peril," 16 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

In his last sermon, preached at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, King spoke of children living with rats in Newark and of country people in Marks, Miss., foraging for food. — Richard Lischer, Washington Post, "What Martin Luther King Jr. would think of Black Lives Matter today," 4 Apr. 2018 When the Pilgrims and Wampanoag sat down to the first Thanksgiving dinner, their feast revolved around foods that had been foraged, hunted and fished: venison, wild fowl, indigenous fruits and seafood like mussels, whole fish and lobster. — Elizabeth G. Dunn And Matthew Kronsberg, WSJ, "The Battle for Thanksgiving Heats Up," 31 Oct. 2018 One runs a company called Broth Baby, which makes healing broths, including hand-foraged seaweed. — Tamar Adler, Vogue, "Is Seaweed the Perfect Food?," 15 Feb. 2019 But, as sharp and sensitive about feelings as flavors, Bir also knows that foraging touches something more than practicality or frugality or even sustenance. — Rebekah Denn, The Seattle Times, "Sara Bir offers practical guidelines, and delicious recipes, for foraged fruit," 5 July 2018 Back In 2003, on a whim, Steve Selin joined a group of his neighbors in the Finger Lakes region of New York to forage wild apples to press into hard cider. — Elizabeth G. Dunn, WSJ, "These Apple Ciders Are Wild—Literally," 17 Jan. 2019 While neonicotinoids seem to hamper bees’ ability to forage, indirectly affecting the health of the colony, the study on sulfoxaflor didn’t seem to show the same problem with foraging. — Cathleen O'grady, Ars Technica, "There’s a new insecticide on the block, and it’s also bad news for bees," 19 Aug. 2018 A few weeks later, a relative of the highest-ranking Buddhist in Chut Pyin disappeared while foraging in the mountains. — Niharika Mandhana, WSJ, "‘We’ll Turn Your Village Into Soil’: Survivors Recount One of Myanmar’s Biggest Massacres," 11 May 2018 Drive about 20 minutes north to Schlossberg, where chef Jörg Sackmann composes tasting menus inspired by foraging in the local woods. — Laura Giannatempo, Condé Nast Traveler, "A Weekend Road Trip to the Black Forest," 27 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'forage.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.