▪ I. graze, n.
(greɪz)
[f. graze v.2]
1. An act or instance of grazing, touching lightly, or rubbing against, a surface in passing: said esp. of shot; also, ‘the point at which a shot strikes and rebounds from earth or water’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1867).
| 1692 in Capt. Smith's Seaman's Gram. ii. xxvi. 136 The Graze of the Bullet at the first Shot. 1864 Daily Tel. 7 June, Dividing the sum of all the distances, taken from the muzzle to the first graze. 1876 Daily News 30 Sept. 2/2 Common shell..which gave a range of about 3,000 yards at the first graze. 1879 Proctor Pleas. Ways Sci. v. 112 All successive grazes [of a ray of light] would be indicated to us by accessions of lustre. 1899 Speaker 11 Nov. 133/1 The difficulty is..to secure a fuze sufficiently delicate to act on graze. |
2. A superficial wound or abrasion, caused by an object rubbing against the skin of the body.
| 1847 Illustr. Lond. News 10 July 30/1 A few grazes and bruises were all the evils. 1891 E. Peacock N. Brendon I. 151 Quite a slight wound, just a graze of the arm. |
▪ II. graze, v.1
(greɪz)
Forms: 4–8 grase, (5 gresyn, 6 grease), 6– graze.
[OE. grasian, f. gras-, græs grass n.1; cf. MDu., MHG. grasen (Du. grazen, G. grasen), Sw. gräsa, Da. græsse, trans. and intr.]
1. intr. Chiefly of cattle: To feed on growing grass and other herbage.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 200 [Se þe] oxan grasiende ᵹesihþ siᵹe ceapas [read ceapes] ᵹetacnað. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 142 Lich an oxe under the fote He graseth. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 121 Nature hathe..Ordeyned..Sheepe in theyr pasture to grase day and nyght. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. viii. 40 b, Driving them [partridges] in the daye time too goe grase in the mountaynes. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 111 Our Hogs and Cattell haue twentie miles circuit to graze in securely. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 774 The lion, and the libbard, and the bear Graze with the fearless flocks. 1837 W. Irving Capt. Bonneville I. 102 The poor jaded horses were turned out to graze. 1879 Stainer Music of Bible 2 The god..found a mountain tortoise grazing near his grotto. 1894 J. T. Fowler Adamnan Introd. 51 The cows that grazed in the monastic pastures. |
b. Proverb.
| 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 189 Suche as they most gladly dead would haue Eateth of that goose that graseth on their graue. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingt. (1841) 25 ‘The goose that graseth on the greene’, quoth he, ‘May I eat on when you shall buryed be!’ 1632 in Crt. & Times Chas. I (1848) II. 177 He looks fresh, and enjoys his health..so that if any other prelate do gape after his benefice, his grace, perhaps, according to that old and homely proverb, [may] eat of the goose which shall graze upon his grave. |
2. transf. and fig. a. ‘To move on devouring’ (J.). ? Obs. b. humorously of persons: To feed. Also to send to graze: to send packing, turn out.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 113 Sike mischiefe graseth hem emong. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 190 Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. a 1626 Bacon War w. Spain (1629) 10 As euery State lay next to the other that was oppressed, so the fire perpetually grazed. 1675 T. Turnor Case Bankers & Creditors (ed. 3) 35 This Wildfire..had now grazed almost throughout the whole Realm. 1733 Swift Legion Club 215 Will you, in your faction's phrase, Send the clergy all to graze? 1824 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 304 Mr. Drummond..does no harm grazing at the bottom of a long table. 1872 Earl Pembroke & G. H. Kingsley S. Sea Bubbles ix. 230 Mosquitoes that are grazing coolly on one's hands. |
3. trans. To feed on, eat (growing grass or other herbage). Chiefly poet.
| 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 253 Flocks Grasing the tender herb. 1697 Dryden æneid vi. 889 Their Steeds around, Free from their Harness, graze the flow'ry Ground. 1712 Pope Messiah 77 The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead. 1784 Cowper Task v. 785 Brutes graze the mountain⁓top with faces prone. |
| fig. 1791 Boswell Johnson 1 July, an. 1763 note, He is the richest authour that ever grazed the common of literature. |
† b. transf. Said of fish. Obs. rare.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 568 This Neptune gave him, when he gave to keep His scaly Flocks, that graze the wat'ry deep. |
4. causal. To put (cattle) to feed on pasture; also, to tend while so feeding.
| 1564 Golding Justin's Hist. ii. (1570) 10 b, They feede & graze theyr cattell wandering through the desertes. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. iii. 92 When Iacob graz'd his Vncle Labans sheepe. 1613 Wither Epithal. in Juvenilia (1633) 372 We drive our flocks a field to graze them. 1707 J. Archdale Descr. Carolina 31 A Cow is grased near as cheap as a Sheep here in England. 1846 McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 181 Great numbers of cattle, and of long-wooled sheep, are grazed in the fens. 1863 Fawcett Pol. Econ. ii. viii. (1876) 239 Labourers who have been accustomed to graze a cow..upon a common. |
5. intr. (or absol.) To pasture cattle.
| c 1645 Tullie Siege of Carlisle (1840) 34 Capt Philipson jun. grased in the same place. 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 21 A delicate grasse..upon which..you may graze with cattle or horse. 1668 Ormonde MSS. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 79 Your petitioners, and those that grase with them, have..noe way to bring their cattell to the markett. 1892 Within Hour Lond. xiii. 266 My own friends, who grazed on the marshes. |
6. trans. To put cattle to feed on (grass, land, etc.); † to graze up, to exhaust by grazing.
| 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 161 Driving on til they have grazed al up. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 16 Some graze their Land till Christmas, and some longer. 1783 Johnson in Boswell 18 Apr., You may graze the ground when the trees are grown up. 1861 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXII. ii. 420 The young grass should not be grazed. 1880 Jefferies Gt. Estate viii. 150 A pasture field..which it was believed had been grazed for fully two hundred years. |
7. intr. Of land: To produce grass; to serve for grazing. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1625 Bacon Ess., Building (Arb.) 551 The Quarters to Graze, being kept Shorne, but not too neare Shorne. 1626 ― Sylva §600 The Ground will be like a Wood, which keepeth out the Sunne; And so continueth the Wet; Whereby it will neuer graze (to purpose) that yeare. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 10 The unsuitable unnaturall laying down of Land to Graze. 1707 Mortimer Husb. 28 Those Lands that Graze speedily. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Graze, to become covered with the growth of grass. |
Hence grazed (greɪzd), ppl. a. Also ˈgrazer, an animal that grazes.
| 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 113 Grazed Lands. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 486 Lik'ning his Maker to the Grazéd Ox. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 104 After them the Cackling Goose, Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her Want. 1856 Whittier Panorama 254 Like the crowned grazer on Euphrates' shore. |
Add: [2.] c. To eat informally, taking small quantities of food at frequent but usu. irregular intervals, to snack (on); spec. to consume unpurchased foodstuffs furtively while walking around a supermarket. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| [1978 Advertising Age 30 Oct. 27/4 In one generation, we have gone from a traditional food producing society to a food grazing society—one where we eat wherever we happen to be.] 1979 [implied in *grazer n. 2]. 1983 R. Christian in Verbatim Autumn 8/2 At night..restless spirits who prowl the pantry are ‘grazing’. 1985 New York 17 June 43/2 Yuppies do not eat. They socialize, they network, they graze or troll. 1991 Independent on Sunday 19 May 12/5 Peanut-butter sandwiches, usually eaten with jam, are a traditional and nutritious component of US school lunches. American children graze on them. |
d. To obtain information or diversion by casual selection; to sample or browse, esp. by switching rapidly between television channels. colloq.
| 1986 Times 13 June 39/4 Mel Calman, as anyone who grazes..off the front page of The Times knows, does the pocket cartoons. 1988 Chicago Tribune 31 July vi. 2/2 Both sexes are channel grazing more often. The reason: a widening spectrum of viewing options, thanks to cable TV. 1989 N.Y. Times 31 Dec. iv. 10/2 Today's Manhattanite can graze among 37 channels, and others are on the way. |
▪ III. graze, v.2
(greɪz)
Also 7 graise, 8 grase.
[Of obscure etymology. The sense closely approaches that of glaze, glace v. (see esp. 2 b below), of which this may possibly be an altered form due to the influence of grate v. Prof. Skeat suggests that the word may be a transferred use of prec., the sense ‘to take off the grass close down to the ground’ having passed into the sense ‘to touch lightly in passing’; cf. ‘a close shave’; also G. grasen ‘to roll and bound, said of cannon-balls’ (Flügel), and quots. 1632 and 1642 under sense 2.]
1. trans. To touch (a surface) lightly in passing; esp. to roughen or abrade (the skin or a part of the body) in rubbing or brushing past. Also, to suffer slight abrasion of (a part of one's body).
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 279 Whose solid vertue The shot of Accident, nor dart of Chance Could neither graze, nor pierce? 1701 Cowell's Interpr. s.v. Grass-Hearth, As we still say, the Skin is gras'd, or slightly hurt. 1814 Scott Wav. li, The bullet grazed the young lady's temple. 1863 F. A. Kemble Resid. in Georgia 51 At six o'clock our little canoe grazed the steps. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. iii. §23 (1879) 125 Some comets..approach so close to the Sun as almost to graze its surface. 1869 Mrs. Stowe Oldtown Folks xiv. (1870) 132 She fell and grazed her arm sadly. |
| fig. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas xi. vii. ¶1 His self-love was grazed now and then. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 644 The civil war had barely grazed the frontier of Devonshire. 1887 J. C. Morison Service of Man (1889) xv, How nearly we grazed a fratricidal war with our American kinsfolk..dwells in all memories. |
b. Said of a ray of light; spec. To meet (a curve) tangentially.
| 1839 G. Bird Nat. Philos. 308 The luminous ray could only graze the surface of the medium abd. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxv. 178 The sun's..rays..grazing the summit of the mountain. 1863 Challis in Notices R. Astron. Soc. XXIII. 235 Hitherto it has been supposed that a ray from a star..may pass through the atmosphere in a course which grazes, or is a tangent to, the interior globe. |
c. To rub (oneself) against a surface in passing.
| 1870 Dickens E. Drood iii, You..keep close to the house yourself and squeeze and graze yourself against it. |
2. intr. To move so as to touch something lightly in passing, or so as to produce slight abrasion. † In early use, of a bullet: To ricochet.
| 1632 Shaks.'s Hen. V, iv. iii. 105 (2nd Folio) Marke then abounding valour in our English: That being dead, like to the bullets grasing [Quartos & 1st Folio crasing], Breake out into a second course of mischiefe. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. i. 358 Those bullets which graze on the ground do most mischief to an army. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 267 An Arrow came grazing through my hair. 1732 T. Lediard Sethos II. x. 420 The edge of the buckler..graz'd pretty hard along his arm. 1796 H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. 212 So that the fresh breezes..may graze along the shores of Chili and Peru. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xlv. (1856) 410 Sometimes running into a berg, or grazing against its edge. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 171 Faintly-venomed points Of slander, glancing here and grazing there. |
b. said of a ray of light.
| a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 78 Then be the tops of the mountaines graised on by the beames appearing. |
Hence grazed (greɪzd), ppl. a.
| 1890 Daily News 13 Oct. 7/1 A slight grazed wound over the right eye. |
▪ IV. graze, v.3 dial.
(greɪz)
[? Back-formation from grazier; connexion with F. engraisser of like meaning seems improbable.]
trans. and intr. To fatten. Also, to weigh (a specified weight) after fattening.
| 1787 W. Marshall Norfolk (1795) II. 380 To Graze, to fat. 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. ii. 419 A 20 weeks' old pig will graze 7 score, and on the average they reach 20 score at 12 months' age: they have been grazed to 29 score within the 12 months. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Graze, 1. To fatten; to become fat—applied to cattle, but quite as much to stall-fed as to grass-fed. 2. To weigh after fattening—applied to a pig..‘I have a great sow I reckon will graze up pretty nigh thirty score.’ |