pasture

/ˈpæstʃər/

/ˈpæstʃə/

Other forms: pastures; pastured; pasturing

If your cattle are feeling hungry, you should let them pasture, or graze, in a grassy field known as a pasture. Pasture is both a noun and a verb associated with grazing animals.

As a noun, a pasture is a field where animals such as horses and cattle can graze, or feed. Pasture can also refer to the grasses or other plants that grow in a pasture. As a verb, pasture means "to graze" or "to release animals into a pasture for grazing." You also might hear this word used in the idiom "Put out to pasture," which means "to retire someone," usually because of old age.

Definitions of pasture

1. noun

   a field covered with grass or herbage and suitable for grazing by livestock
   synonyms: grazing land, lea, ley, pastureland

   types:

   common land, commons

   a pasture subject to common use

   cow pasture

   a pasture for cows

   type of:

   grassland

   land where grass or grasslike vegetation grows and is the dominant form of plant life
2. noun

   bulky food like grass or hay for browsing or grazing horses or cattle
   synonyms: eatage, forage, grass, pasturage

   type of:

   fodder

   coarse food (especially for livestock) composed of entire plants or the leaves and stalks of a cereal crop
3. verb

   let feed in a field or pasture or meadow
   synonyms: crop, graze

   browse, crop, graze, range

   feed as in a meadow or pasture

   types:

   grass

   feed with grass

   drift

   drive slowly and far afield for grazing

   type of:

   feed, give

   give food to
4. verb

   feed as in a meadow or pasture
   synonyms: browse, crop, graze, range

   range

   let eat

   crop, graze

   let feed in a field or pasture or meadow

   type of:

   eat, feed

   take in food; used of animals only