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Webster 1913 Edition

Forage

For′age

(?; 48)
,
Noun.
[OF.
fourage
, F.
fourrage
, fr.
forre
,
fuerre
, fodder, straw, F.
feurre
, fr. LL.
foderum
,
fodrum
, of German or Scand, origin; cf. OHG.
fuotar
, G.
futter
. See
Fodder
food, and cf.
Foray
.]
1.
The act of foraging; search for provisions, etc.
He [the lion] from
forage
will incline to play.
Shakespeare
One way a band select from
forage
drives
A herd of beeves, fair oxen and fair kine.
Milton.
Mawhood completed his
forage
unmolested.
Marshall.
2.
Food of any kind for animals, especially for horses and cattle, as grass, pasture, hay, corn, oats.
Dryden.
Forage cap
.
See under
Cap
.
–
Forage master
(Mil.)
,
a person charged with providing forage and the means of transporting it.
Farrow.

For′age

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Foraged
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Foraging
.]
To wander or rove in search of food; to collect food, esp. forage, for horses and cattle by feeding on or stripping the country; to ravage; to feed on spoil.
His most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion’s whelp
Forage
in blood of French nobility.
Shakespeare
Foraging ant
(Zool.)
,
one of several species of ants of the genus
Eciton
, very abundant in tropical America, remarkable for marching in vast armies in search of food.
–
Foraging cap
,
a forage cap.
–
Foraging party
,
a party sent out after forage.

For′age

,
Verb.
T.
To strip of provisions; to supply with forage;
as, to
forage
steeds
.
Pope.

Webster 1828 Edition

Forage

FOR'AGE

,
Noun.
[L. voro.]
1.
Food of any kind for horses and cattle, as grass; pasture, hay, corn and oats.
2.
The act of providing forage.
Col. Mawhood completed his forage unmolested.
If the forage is to be made at a distance from the camp -
3.
Search for provisions; the act of feeding abroad.

FOR'AGE

, v.i.
1.
To collect food for horses and cattle, by wandering about and feeding or stripping the country.
2.
To wander far; to rove. Obs.
3.
To ravage; to feed on spoil.

FOR'AGE

,
Verb.
T.
To strip of provisions for horses, &c.

Definition 2024

forage

forage

English

Noun

forage ‎(countable and uncountable, plural forages)

  1. Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
    • 1819, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:
      “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.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  2. An act or instance of foraging.
    • Shakespeare
      He [the lion] from forage will incline to play.
    • Marshall
      Mawhood completed his forage unmolested.
    • 1860 September, “A Chapter on Rats”, in The Knickerbocker, volume 56, number 3, page 304:
      ‘My dears,’ he discourses to them — how he licks his gums, long toothless, as he speaks of his forages into the well-stored cellars: […]
  3. (obsolete) The demand for fodder etc by an army from the local population

Translations

Verb

forage ‎(third-person singular simple present forages, present participle foraging, simple past and past participle foraged)

  1. To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.
    • 1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer, Chapter 8:
      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.
  2. To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 1, Scene 2:
      And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, / Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, / Making defeat on the full power of France, / Whiles his most mighty father on a hill / Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp / Forage in blood of French nobility.
  3. To rummage.
    • 1898, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Wrecker:
      Using the blankets for a basket, we sent up the books, instruments, and clothes to swell our growing midden on the deck; and then Nares, going on hands and knees, began to forage underneath the bed.

Derived terms

Translations

French

Etymology

From forer +‎ -age

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /fɔʁ.aʒ/

Noun

forage m ‎(plural forages)

  1. drilling (act of drilling)

Etymology

From Middle English forage, from Old French fourage, forage, a derivative of fuerre ‎(“fodder, straw”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *fōdar ‎(“fodder, sheath”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą ‎(“fodder, feed, sheath”), from Proto-Indo-European *patrom ‎(“fodder”), *pat- ‎(“to feed”), *pāy- ‎(“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with Old High German fuotar (German Futter ‎(“fodder, feed”)), Old English fōdor, fōþor ‎(“food, fodder, covering, case, basket”), Dutch voeder ‎(“forage, food, feed”), Danish foder ‎(“fodder, feed”), Icelandic fóðr ‎(“fodder, sheath”). More at fodder, food.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfɒɹᵻdʒ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈfɔɹᵻdʒ/, /ˈfɑɹᵻdʒ/, /ˈfoɚdʒ/
  • Homophone: forge (some American accents)

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