feast

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feast

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• enPR: fēst, IPA^(key): /fiːst/

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• Rhymes: -iːst

From Middle English feeste, feste, borrowed from Old French feste, from Late Latin festa, from the plural of Latin festum (“holiday, festival, feast”), from Proto-Italic *fēs-tos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s (“god, godhead, deity”); see also Ancient Greek θεός (theós, “god, goddess”). More at theo-. Doublet of fete, fiesta, and fest. Displaced Old English winhate.

feast (plural feasts)

1. A very large meal, often of a ceremonial nature.

   We had a feast to celebrate the harvest.

2. Something delightful

   It was a feast for the eyes.

3. A festival; a holy day or holiday; a solemn, or more commonly, a joyous, anniversary.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 13:6:

     The seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 2:41:

     Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

• banquet

From Middle English feesten, festen, from Old French fester, from Medieval Latin festāre, from the noun. See above.

feast (third-person singular simple present feasts, present participle feasting, simple past and past participle feasted)

1. (intransitive) To partake in a feast, or large meal.

   I feasted on turkey and dumplings.

2. (intransitive) To dwell upon (something) with delight.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 47”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     With my love's picture then my eye doth feast.

3. (transitive) To hold a feast in honor of (someone).
   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     He that shall see this day, and live old age,
     Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors
     And say “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.”

   We feasted them after the victory.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To serve as a feast for; to feed sumptuously.
   • 1597–1598, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum

     Or once a week, perhaps, for novelty / Reez'd bacon-soords shall feast his family.

• feaster
• feasting
• feast one’s eyes

• Fates, fetas, Festa, TAFEs, feats, festa, fates, atefs