Feast definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (36)

American Heritage Dictionary (8)

noun A large, elaborately prepared meal, usually for many persons and often accompanied by entertainment; a banquet.
noun A meal that is well prepared and abundantly enjoyed.
noun A periodic religious festival commemorating an event or honoring a god or saint.

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Century Dictionary (18)

A festival in commemoration of some event, or in honor of some distinguished person; a set time of festivity and rejoicing: opposed to fast. In this sense the word is almost entirely confined to ecclesiastical feasts. In the Jewish church the most important feasts, apart from the sabbath, were those of the Atonement, the Passover, Tabernacles, and Pentecost. To these were subsequently added the feasts of Purim and the Dedication. In the Christian church Christmas and Easter are feasts of almost universal recognition and observance. To these many others have been added, celebrating events in the life of Christ or in the lives of the apostles, saints, and martyrs. Feasts are divided into movable and immovable, according as they occur on a specific day of the week succeeding a certain day of the month or phase of the moon, or at a fixed date. Easter is a movable feast, upon which all other movable feasts depend; Christmas is an immovable feast. In the Roman Catholic Church feasts are further divided into obligatory, and nonobligatory, and again into doubles, semi-doubles, simples, etc., according to the religious offices required to be recited in the church service. For the love and in worschipe of that Ydole, and for the reverence of the Feste, thei slen hemself, a 200 or 300 persones, with scharpe Knyfes. Mandeville, Travels, p. 176. The kynge lete it be knowen thourgh his reame that all high festes, as Pasch and Pentecoste and yole and halowmesse, sholde be holden at Cardoel. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 63. Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, To keep our great Saint George's feast withal. Shak., 1 Hen. VI., i. 1. The autumn feast lingered on unchallenged in the village harvest-home, with the sheaf, in old times a symbol of the god, nodding gay with flowers and ribbons, on the last wagon. J. R. Green, Conq. of Eng., p. 11.
A sumptuous entertainment or repast of which a number of guests partake; particularly, a rich or splendid public entertainment. The governor of the feast called the bridegroom. John ii. 9. Make not a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon the first place. Shak., T. of A., iii. 6. Last Wednesday I gave a feast in form to the Hertfords. Walpole, Letters, II. 430. And Julian made a solemn feast; I never Sat at a costlier. Tennyson, Lover's Tale, iv.
Any rich, delicious, or abundant repast or meal; hence, something delicious or highly agreeable, or in which some delectable quality abounds. He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Prov. xv. 15. A perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. Milton, Comus, l. 478. There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl, The feast of reason and the flow of soul. Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. i. 128. Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady, Where all day long you sit between Joy and woe, and whisper each. Tennyson, Margaret, v.

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Examples (50)

The love-feast was immediately after; the master of the feast was there: I felt his presence and spoke.—Mr. — Religion in Earnest
And full compensation their stomachs get, as the feast is a literal gorge of meat and drink. — Russia As Seen and Described by Famous Writers
Only men who or whose families have provided at least one pig for the feast are allowed to join in the dancing. — The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea
The men who came to tell of the final completion of the tree and the greater preparations for the feast were assured that the one tiny guest for whom their labors of love were being expended would surely be ready to enjoy the celebration The afternoon gave way to night in the manner common to wintry days. — Bruvver Jim's Baby
By the friction of white-cedar wood for the feast was a Virgin-fire [20] kindled. — The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems

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festival · banquet · ceremony · celebration · dinner · entertainment · festivity · sacrifice · procession · dance · gift · repast

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English feste, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *fēsta, from Latin, pl. of fēstum, from fēstus, festive; see dhēs- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Middle English feeste, feste, fest, from Old French feste, French fête (see fête, n.) = Provencal festa = Spanish fiesta = Portuguese Italian festa = Dutch feest = G. Danish Swedish fest, from Latin festa, plural of festum, a holiday, festival, feast, neuter of festus, joyous, festive, belonging to a holiday (dies festus, a holiday); cf. feriæ (for *fesiæ), holidays (whence English fair, q. v.). Hence (from Latin festum) festal, festival, etc.
from Middle English feesten, festen, from Old French fester (modern F. fêter) = Italian festare, from Middle Latin festare, feast; from the noun.

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