forage

forage
    n 1: bulky food like grass or hay for browsing or grazing horses
         or cattle [syn: {eatage}, {forage}, {pasture}, {pasturage},
         {grass}]
    2: the act of searching for food and provisions [syn:
       {foraging}, {forage}]
    v 1: collect or look around for (food) [syn: {scrounge},
         {forage}]
    2: wander and feed; "The animals forage in the woods"
    

Forage \For"age\ (?; 48), n. [OF. fourage, F. fourrage, fr.
   forre, fuerre, fodder, straw, F. feurre, fr. LL. foderum,
   fodrum, of German or Scand, origin; cf. OHG. fuotar, G.
   futter. See {Fodder} food, and cf. {Foray}.]
   1. The act of foraging; search for provisions, etc.
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            He [the lion] from forage will incline to play.
                                                  --Shak.
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            One way a band select from forage drives
            A herd of beeves, fair oxen and fair kine. --Milton.
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            Mawhood completed his forage unmolested. --Marshall.
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   2. Food of any kind for animals, especially for horses and
      cattle, as grass, pasture, hay, corn, oats. --Dryden.
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   {Forage cap}. See under {Cap}.

   {Forage master} (Mil.), a person charged with providing
      forage and the means of transporting it. --Farrow.
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Forage \For"age\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Foraged}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Foraging}.]
   To wander or rove in search of food; to collect food, esp.
   forage, for horses and cattle by feeding on or stripping the
   country; to ravage; to feed on spoil.
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         His most mighty father on a hill
         Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
         Forage in blood of French nobility.      --Shak.
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   {Foraging ant} (Zool.), one of several species of ants of the
      genus {Eciton}, very abundant in tropical America,
      remarkable for marching in vast armies in search of food.
      

   {Foraging cap}, a forage cap.

   {Foraging party}, a party sent out after forage.
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Forage \For"age\, v. t.
   To strip of provisions; to supply with forage; as, to forage
   steeds. --Pope.
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116 Moby Thesaurus words for "forage":
      barley, beat, beat the bushes, bird seed, board, bran, bread,
      bunker, burrow, cat food, cater, chicken feed, chop, coal, comb,
      corn, delve, depredate, despoil, dig, dine, dog food,
      domiciliary visit, dragnet, eatage, ensilage, exploration, explore,
      feed, fill up, fleece, fodder, foray, freeboot, frisk, fuel, gas,
      gas up, go through, grain, grass, gratify, graze, gut, hay,
      house-search, hunt, hunting, look around, look round, look through,
      loot, maraud, mash, meal, meat, mess, nose around, oats, oil,
      pasturage, pasture, perquisition, pet food, pillage, plunder, poke,
      poke around, posse, prey on, probe, provender, provision, pry,
      purvey, quest, raid, ransack, ransacking, ravage, raven, ravish,
      regale, reive, research, rifle, root, rummage, sack, satisfy,
      scratch, scratch feed, search, search party, search through,
      search warrant, search-and-destroy operation, searching, sell,
      silage, slops, smell around, spoil, spoliate, stalk, stalking,
      still hunt, straw, sustain, sweep, swill, top off, turning over,
      victual, wheat, wine and dine