▪ I. pasture, n.
(ˈpɑːstjʊə(r), ˈpæs-)
Also 4–6 -ur, -our, 5 -urre, 5–6 -or, -er.
[a. OF. pasture (12th c. in Littré), mod.F. pâture = Pr. and It. pastura:—late L. pāstūra, lit. feeding, grazing, f. pāst-, ppl. stem of pāsc-ĕre to feed, graze, attend to the feeding of (beasts): see -ure.]
1. The action of feeding (said of animals); spec. the grazing of cattle. rare.
| c 1386 Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 365 Leue I this Chauntecleer in his pasture. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E v b, Iff ye se where the haare at pasture hath bene. 1530 Palsgr. 252/2 Pasture fedyng, pasture. 1658 Phillips, Pasture, a feeding. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 318 The leaf, its [the worm's] plain of pasture. |
† 2. Food, nourishment, sustenance.
lit. and
fig.| ? c 1400 Lydg. æsop's Fab. i. 119 Among rude chaffe to scrape for my pasture. c 1430 ― Chichevache & B. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 133 By cause that pasture I fynde none, Therfor I am but skyn and boon. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 59 Todes and frogs, his pasture poysonous. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xxi. 162 Unto its conservation there is required a solid pasture, and a food congenerous unto the principles of its nature. 1786 Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 60 What effect changes of pasture and temperature would have on the fisheries. |
3. The growing grass or herbage eaten by cattle.
common pasture, the use of such by the cattle of a number of owners.
common of pasture: see
common n. 6.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2445 (Cott.) To pastur commun þai laght þe land [Trin. To commune pasture þei took þe lond] Þe quilk þam neiest lay to hand. Ibid. 2448 (Gött) Bot fra þair stor bigan to sprede Þair pastur gan to wax al nede [Cott. bigan to knede]. 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 45 Her londe is fruytefull ynough in pasture. 1526 Tindale John x. 9 He shalbe safe and shall goo in and out and fynde pasture. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 28 We entered a Plain, which..abounds in Pasture. 1700 Prior Robe's Geog. 17 Twenty acres..For pasture ten, and ten for plough. 1842 J. Bischoff Woollen Manuf. II. 283 Pasture has a great influence on the fineness of the fleece. |
4. a. A piece of land covered with grass used or suitable for the grazing of cattle or sheep; grass land; a piece of such land.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 310 Þorgh pastours forto fare, for bestes to lardere. 14.. in Tundale's Vis. (1843) 97 To bryng the lost schepe ageyn Owt of desert unto hys pasture. a 1550 Vox Populi 718 in Hazl. E.P.P. III. 293 Suche lyke comonwelthe wasters, That of erable groundes make pasters. 1595 Spenser Col. Clout 238 And where may I the hills and pastures see, On which she useth for to feed her sheepe? 1776–96 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) II. 432 Wild white Campion... Pastures, hedges, and fallow fields. 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 618 Grass lands..for the growing herbage, to support cattle, in which state they are called pastures. 1862 G. J. Whyte-Melville Ins. Bar xi. 388 A low swampy pasture patched with rushes. |
b. fig.,
esp. in
pastures new.
| 13.. Cursor M. 18449 (Gött.) Þat pastur es cald heuen blis, Þar till vs bring iesus wid his! a 1340 Hampole Psalter xciv. 7 Folke of his pasture & shepe of his hend. 1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue 42 They will..driue vs to poysoned pastures. [1638 Milton Lycidas in Iusta Eduardo King ii. 25 To morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.] 1712 Addison Hymn, The Lord my Pasture shall prepare. 1901 Scotsman 5 Mar. 9/3 The pleasant literary pastures of Oxford's bookshops. 1906 G. Ade (title) In pastures new. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 645 Wrapped in the arms of Murphy, as the adage has it, dreaming of fresh fields and pastures new. 1975 L. Gillen Return to Deepwater i. 6 He had always resolutely refused to leave his native heath..and..had never felt the need to seek pastures new. 1977 It June 5/2 Some of this third group came to London to lead the winos and the rejects out to pastures new and they used 66 as a clearing house. |
5. U.S. (
a) That part of a deep-water weir which the fish first enter (
Cent. Dict. 1890). (
b) An inshore spawning-ground for cod-fish (
Funk's Standard Dict. 1895).
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
pasture-field,
pasture-grass,
pasture-ground,
pasture-man,
pasture-master,
pasture-right,
pasture-sheep,
pasture-sod.
| c 1830 Glouc. Farm Rep. 17 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, The dry *pasture-field. 1874 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 251, I sat down in the lap or fold of a steep slanting pasturefield. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 407 A region where grey twilight ever descends, never falls on wide sage-green pasturefields. 1949 K. M. Wells Owl Pen Reader (1969) ii. 196 Even the mill-pond is vanished. The old pond bottom is now part of a tree-spangled pasture field. |
| 1806 Forsyth Beauties Scotl. IV. 53 Alternate frosts and thaws..greatly injure the *pasture-grass. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right (1899) 130/1 The pasture grasses..burgeon with tropical rapidity of growth. |
| 1578–9 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 79 Scotland upoun that Marche is ane *pastour ground. 1668 in Connecticut Hist. Soc. Coll. (1912) XIV. 21 All that percell of pasture Ground lyeing on the east Side. 1733 Tull Horse-Hoeing Husb. x. 104 One Acre of Turneps will then maintain more than Fifty of Meadow or Pasture-Ground. 1775 J. Nourse in Jrnl. Amer. Hist. (1925) XIX. 351 Water enough for Cattle may be kept all year here for pasture grounds. 1789 J. Morse Amer. Geogr. 381 On the north end it subsides gradually into extensive pasture-grounds. 1841 H. S. Foote Texas & Texans I. 14 The tide of indiscriminate havoc..[marked] its dreadful course with..the spoliation of her fair plantations and pasture-grounds. |
| 1621 Cade Serm. 11 Bootes, the heard or *pastureman. |
| 1833 MS. Indenture (York city), *Pasture-master of Walmgate Ward. |
| 1549–62 Sternhold & H. Ps. c. ii, We are his owne flocke and *pasture sheepe. |
▪ II. pasture, v. (
ˈpɑːstjʊə(r),
ˈpæs-)
[a. OF. pasturer to feed flocks (12th c. in Littré), mod.F. pâturer, f. pasture: see prec.] 1. † a. intr. To feed, to eat (said of animals).
Obs.| 1474 Caxton Chesse 118 The cok..began to crowe and pasture. |
b. spec. Of cattle, sheep, etc.: To graze.
| 1390 Gower Conf. I. 140 So that he lich an Oxe schal Pasture. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxx. 302 Thei sende forth tho Mares, for to pasturen aboute tho Hilles. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1003/1 Such cattell as were found pasturing abroad neere to the wals. 1694 Addison Poems, Virgil Misc. Wks. 1726 I. 16 Nor sheep nor goats must pasture near their stores. 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek 53 The steeds that pastured in his uncle's domains. 1850 R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (ed. 2) I. 67 The springboks and wildebeests pastured before the door. |
| fig. 1590 Spenser Muiopot. 176 He..pastures on the pleasures of each place. 1861 Lytton & Fane Tannhäuser 56 Who hath embraced thee..And pastured on thy royal kiss. |
2. † a. trans. To feed, supply with food.
Obs.| a 1400–50 Alexander 5425 Ȝit ware þai pasturde of pepir..Of gyloffre & of gingere. c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. xxvi. 98 (Harl. MS.) To fede or to pasture him with pappe. |
b. spec. To feed (cattle) by letting them graze on a pasture; to lead or put to pasture.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxxvii. 84 Alle suche labourers that trauaylen..in pasturynge of beestes. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. xii. 14 [The country] pastoureth in the valley a great number of oxen. 1639 Fuller Holy War i. xxi. 33 Here Uzziah pastured his cattel. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. xi. iii. (1869) I. 231 The land is manured..by pasturing the cattle upon it. 1877 Bryant Sella 332 Whose flocks Were pastured on the borders of her stream. 1976 L. Sanders Hamlet Warning (1977) iv. 39 The ranch seems in good shape. He pastures about four hundred head of cattle on it. |
| transf. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 103 The coach leaves W. at five..and one must breakfast..at..four,..the passengers being pastured gregariously. |
† c. intr. To afford pasture.
Obs. rare.
| 1651 R. Child in Hartlib's Legacy (1655) 156 That the place might pasture the better for their young Cattle. |
3. trans. Of sheep or cattle: to graze upon (herbage, grass-land), to eat down. Of persons: to put sheep or cattle on (grass-land, etc.) to graze; also, to use (land) as pasture; to feed cattle on (land).
| 1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII, c. 13 §10 They shall permitte..the..lessees..to manure and pasture the saide quillettes. 1550 Sir R. Bowes in Hodgson Hist. Northumbld. (1828) iii. II. 211 Theire Cattell doe pasture & eate the said ground. 1604 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 435 No man shall pasture the stubbell while the corne is upon the ground. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts (ed. 2) II. 68 Do not mow it, but pasture it every summer. 1850 R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (ed. 2) I. 178 The plains..were pastured short and bare by the endless herds of game. 1901 J. Muir Our National Parks 5 The great Central Valley of California..is ploughed and pastured out of existence, gone forever. |
Hence
ˈpastured ppl. a.;
ˈpasturing vbl. n., the action of the verb, also
concr. pasturage, pasture-land;
ˈpasturing ppl. a., grazing.
| 1552 Huloet, *Pastured, pastus. 1777 R. Potter æschylus I. 28 Thy woes, beneath the sacred shade Of Asia's pastur'd forests. 1837 Bowen Virg. Ecl. v. 24 None..their pastured oxen did lead,..to drink of the cold clear rivulet. |
| 1538 Elyot, Pastio, onis, *pasturinge, or fedinge of catell. 1759 T. Smith Jrnl. (1849) 273 A fruitfull summer, especially in pasturing and hay. 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v. Pasture-land, An increase of fertility is produced..by the pasturing of lands with sheep. |
| 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1109 The Indian Herdsman shunning heate..tends his *pasturing Herds. 1842 J. Aiton Domest. Econ. (1857) 183 A wholesome and acceptable food for every kind of pasturing animal. |