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Etymology and origin of the English word graze

Pronunciation

graze1 to feed on grass

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1000 Old English Leechdoms
Inherited from
Old English grasian via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *grasą

Etymology

To feed on grass is inherited from Middle English grasen,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English grasian,[5][6][7][8] from the stem of græs (“grass”),[6][7][9] the ancestor of grass, from Proto-Germanic *grasą.[5][10] Comparable verbs are Middle Dutch grasen, Middle High German grasen, Dutch grazen, German grasen, Swedish gräsa and Danish græsse.[6][7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of cattle, to feed on growing grass: in the Old English Leechdoms, of oxen seen grazing,[6][8] about 1000 according to Barnhart.[7] The Middle English form is first recorded before 1393, in Gower, who compares a man to an ox that grazes for its food.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In 1564 it was first used causatively, to put cattle out to feed or to tend them,[6][5] and in 1603 of putting cattle on a stretch of land.[6] Johnson (1755) lists "to tend grazing cattle" first among the transitive senses.[11] From Shakespeare on it was used humorously of people feeding,[6] and American and South African slang kept it for eating in general, and in prison for going to the mess.[12] Two new informal senses came in the late 20th century: to eat small amounts at irregular times (1979), and to sample things casually, especially by switching between television channels (1986).[6][13] A dialect graze, to fatten cattle (1787), has a separate source according to the OED, which takes it doubtfully as a back-formation from grazier.[6][14] In south Worcestershire birds were said to graze the radishes they ate.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – of animals, to feed on growing grass.[6][7][8]
  • before 1393 – the form grasen, in Gower.[2][7]
  • 1564 – to put cattle to feed; to tend them while feeding.[6]
  • 1579 – to move along devouring, in Spenser.[6]
  • 1597 – humorously of people, to feed, in Romeo and Juliet.[6]
  • 1603 – to put cattle to feed on land.[6]
  • 1667 – to feed on grass, transitively, in Paradise Lost.[6]
  • 1857 – noun, an act of grazing.[15]
  • 1979 – of people, to eat in small snacks.[6]
  • 1986 – to sample casually, as by switching television channels.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of animals, to feed on growing grass or other herbage: Sheep were grazing on the hillside.[13][15][6]
  2. To put animals to feed on land, or to tend them at pasture: They grazed their cattle on the common.[13][15][6]
  3. (informal) To eat snacks through the day instead of regular meals.[13][6]
  4. (informal) To switch between television channels without watching any for long; more generally, to sample or browse.[13][6]

Noun

  1. An act of grazing.[15]
  2. (South African informal) Food.[13][12]

Word family

  • grazer
  • grazeable
  • overgraze
  • ungrazed

graze2 to touch or scrape lightly

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1604 Shakespeare, Othello

Etymology

To touch or scrape lightly is of uncertain origin.[6][16][17] Skeat suggested that it is a transferred use of graze1, "to take off the grass close to the ground", as in “a close shave”,[6][7][9] and most dictionaries now give this only as a possibility.[15][3][18][19][5] They compare German grasen, used of cannonballs that rebound off the ground,[5][4][6] Swedish gräsa, of a shot,[18] and Danish græsse, of a bullet that ricochets.[18] Dictionary.com compares the semantic shift in French effleurer (“to touch lightly”), from fleur (“flower”).[20][16] The OED, calling the word obscure, also suggests an altered form of glaze or glace under the influence of grate,[6] and Weekley sees suggestions of rase as well.[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To touch lightly in passing: 1604, in Shakespeare's Othello,[7][15] which the OED cites as before 1616 from the edition of 1622.[6] The Shorter Oxford puts the intransitive sense in the late 16th century,[18] Dictionary.com the word in 1595–1605,[20] and Etymonline about 1600.[5]

Semantic evolution

The earliest uses are of a shot or shaft glancing off a surface,[10] and in early use the intransitive verb could mean of a bullet to ricochet,[6][18] as in the quotation from Hakluyt that Weekley gives, where a shot grased before his face.[16] The noun, recorded from 1692, was first said of shot and of the point at which it strikes and rebounds.[6][5] It has meant a superficial wound since 1847.[6][15] Writers also used the verb of a ray of light, from before 1641.[6]

Timeline

  • 1604 – to touch lightly in passing, or to abrade, in Othello.[7][15][6]
  • 1632 – intransitive, to move so as to touch lightly; of a bullet, to ricochet.[6]
  • before 1641 – of a ray of light.[6]
  • 1692 – noun, an act of touching lightly, especially by shot.[6][5]
  • 1847 – noun, a superficial wound.[6][15]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To touch or rub lightly in passing: The branch just grazed his shoulder.[15][6]
  2. To scrape or abrade the skin by rubbing against something rough: He slipped and grazed his elbow.[15][18]

Noun

  1. A light touch or scrape in passing.[15][6]
  2. A superficial abrasion of the skin.[15][6][18]
  3. In artillery, the bursting of a projectile on impact with the ground or another object.[15]

Word family

  • grazingly

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  16. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  20. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Graze.” Etymologically, 4 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/graze. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

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