feast
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: fēst, IPA(key): /fiːst/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːst
Etymology 1
From Middle English feeste, feste, borrowed from Old French feste, from Late Latin festa, from the plural of Latin festum (“holiday, festival, feast”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s (“god, godhead, deity”); see also Ancient Greek θεός (theós, “god, goddess”). More at theo-.
Noun
feast (plural feasts)
- A very large meal, often of a ceremonial nature.
- We had a feast to celebrate the harvest.
- Something delightful
- It was a feast for the eyes.
- A festival; a holy day or holiday; a solemn, or more commonly, a joyous, anniversary.
- Bible, Exodus xiii. 6
- The seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.
- Bible, Luke ii. 41
- Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.
- Bible, Exodus xiii. 6
Synonyms
Derived terms
- afterfeast
- feast-day
- feast for the eyes
- feastful
- feastly
- forefeast
- love-feast
Translations
large, often ceremonial meal
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something delightful
festival, holiday, solemn, or more commonly, joyous, anniversary
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Etymology 2
From Middle English feesten, festen, from Old French fester, from Medieval Latin festāre, from the noun. See above.
Verb
feast (third-person singular simple present feasts, present participle feasting, simple past and past participle feasted)
- (intransitive) To partake in a feast, or large meal.
- I feasted on turkey and dumplings.
- (intransitive) To dwell upon (something) with delight.
- Shakespeare
- With my love's picture then my eye doth feast.
- Shakespeare
- (transitive) To hold a feast in honor of (someone).
- We feasted them after the victory.
- (transitive, obsolete) To serve as a feast for; to feed sumptuously.
- Bishop Joseph Hall
- Or once a week, perhaps, for novelty / Reez'd bacon-soords shall feast his family.
- Bishop Joseph Hall
Derived terms
Translations
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