Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • 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.
  • noun Something giving great pleasure or satisfaction.
  • intransitive verb To give a feast for; entertain or feed sumptuously.
  • intransitive verb To partake of a feast; eat heartily.
  • intransitive verb To experience something with gratification or delight.
  • idiom (feast (one's) eyes on) To be delighted or gratified by the sight of.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A festival in commemoration of some event, or in honor of some distinguished person; a set time of festivity and rejoicing: opposed to fast.
  • noun A sumptuous entertainment or repast of which a number of guests partake; particularly, a rich or splendid public entertainment.
  • noun Any rich, delicious, or abundant repast or meal; hence, something delicious or highly agreeable, or in which some delectable quality abounds.
  • noun Synonyms Feast, Banquet, Festival. The idea of a social meal of unusual richness or abundance, for the purposes of pleasure, may be common to these words. Feast is generic; specifically, it differs from banquet in the fact that at a feast the food is abundant and choice, while at a banquet there is richness or expensiveness, and especially pomp or ceremony. The essential characteristic of a festival is concurrence in the manifestation of joy, the joyous celebration of some event, feasting being a frequent but not necessary part: as, to hold high festival. See carousal.
  • To make a feast; have a feast; eat sumptuously or abundantly.
  • Figuratively, to dwell with gratification or delight: as, to feast on a poem or a picture.
  • To provide with a feast; entertain with sumptuous fare.
  • To delight; pamper; gratify luxuriously: as, to feast the soul.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To entertain with sumptuous provisions; to treat at the table bountifully.
  • transitive verb To delight; to gratify.
  • noun A festival; a holiday; a solemn, or more commonly, a joyous, anniversary.
  • noun A festive or joyous meal; a grand, ceremonious, or sumptuous entertainment, of which many guests partake; a banquet characterized by tempting variety and abundance of food.
  • noun That which is partaken of, or shared in, with delight; something highly agreeable; entertainment.
  • noun a holiday; a day set as a solemn commemorative festival.
  • intransitive verb To eat sumptuously; to dine or sup on rich provisions, particularly in large companies, and on public festivals.
  • intransitive verb To be highly gratified or delighted.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To partake in a feast, or large meal.
  • verb intransitive To dwell upon (something) with delight.
  • verb transitive To hold a feast in honor of (someone).
  • noun A very large meal, often of a ceremonial nature.
  • noun Something delightful

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a ceremonial dinner party for many people
  • noun an elaborate party (often outdoors)
  • verb gratify
  • noun a meal that is well prepared and greatly enjoyed
  • noun something experienced with great delight
  • verb provide a feast or banquet for
  • verb partake in a feast or banquet

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English feest, feste, fest, from Old French feste, from Latin festa, plural of festum ("holiday, festival, feast").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

  • "This is what I call the feast and flow," said Mr Pitskiver; while Mr

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 342, April, 1844 Various

  • She dined publicly in state; a procession of the municipal magistrates presented her a sample of the wines of the district; and, as she tasted the luscious offering, the coopers celebrated what they called a feast of Bacchus, waving their hoops as they danced round the room in grotesque figures.

    The Life of Marie Antoinette Yonge, Charles Duke, 1812-1891 1876

  • The day of a feast is a day of slaughter, or sacrifice, Jam.v. 5.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721

  • Spirit of God, in holy eucharistical ordinances, are the marriage-feast; and the whole collective body of all those who partake of this feast is the bride, the Lamb's wife; they eat into one body, and drink into one Spirit, and are not mere spectators or guests, but coalesce into the espoused party, the mystical body of Christ.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721

  • But if we take notice how Christ was received into Jerusalem five days before the Passover, with those very rites and solemnities that were used at the feast of Tabernacles, viz. "with branches of palms," &c. chapter 12: 13, these words may seem to relate to that time; and so the word feast might not denote the individual feast that was now instant, but the kind of feast, or festival-time.

    From the Talmud and Hebraica 1602-1675 1979

  • Opee-Kwan rose to his feet "And now, O Nam-Bok, the feast is ended, and we would listen concerning the strange things you have seen."

    Nam-Bok, the Unveracious 2010

  • The guests are met, the feast is set: may'st hear the merry din - and the celebrated performance of the stage adaptation of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner began.

    EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT 2/5: The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar 2009

  • Praise the bounty of the harvest laid in feast before us here.

    Thank you « Dating Jesus 2009

  • From the Holy Father's June 6, 2007, General Audience on St. Cyprian, "the first Bishop in Africa to obtain the crown of martyrdom", whose feast is celebrated today:

    Saints 2009

  • Opee-Kwan rose to his feet "And now, O Nam-Bok, the feast is ended, and we would listen concerning the strange things you have seen."

    NAM-BOK THE UNVERACIOUS 2010

Comments

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  • joantonym = fast

    April 25, 2008

  • Rita's name was a feast in my mouth

    Rita's body was a wedding in my blood

    And I was lost in Rita for two years

    And for two years she slept on my arm

    And we made promises

    Over the most beautiful of cups

    - Mahmoud Darwish, 'Rita And The Rifle'.

    September 16, 2008