FEAST

feast
    n 1: a ceremonial dinner party for many people [syn: {banquet},
         {feast}]
    2: something experienced with great delight; "a feast for the
       eyes"
    3: a meal that is well prepared and greatly enjoyed; "a banquet
       for the graduating seniors"; "the Thanksgiving feast"; "they
       put out quite a spread" [syn: {banquet}, {feast}, {spread}]
    4: an elaborate party (often outdoors) [syn: {fete}, {feast},
       {fiesta}]
    v 1: partake in a feast or banquet [syn: {feast}, {banquet},
         {junket}]
    2: provide a feast or banquet for [syn: {feast}, {banquet},
       {junket}]
    3: gratify; "feed one's eyes on a gorgeous view" [syn: {feed},
       {feast}]
    

Feast \Feast\, v. t.
   1. To entertain with sumptuous provisions; to treat at the
      table bountifully; as, he was feasted by the king.
      --Hayward.
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   2. To delight; to gratify; as, to feast the soul.
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            Feast your ears with the music a while. --Shak.
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Feast \Feast\ (f[=e]st), n. [OE. feste festival, holiday, feast,
   OF. feste festival, F. f[^e]te, fr. L. festum, pl. festa, fr.
   festus joyful, festal; of uncertain origin. Cf. {Fair}, n.,
   {Festal}, {F[^e]te}.]
   1. A festival; a holiday; a solemn, or more commonly, a
      joyous, anniversary.
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            The seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. --Ex.
                                                  xiii. 6.
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            Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the
            feast of the passover.                --Luke ii. 41.
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   Note: An Ecclesiastical feast is called a {immovable feast}
         when it always occurs on the same day of the year;
         otherwise it is called a {movable feast}. Easter is a
         notable movable feast.
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   2. 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.
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            Enough is as good as a feast.         --Old Proverb.
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            Belshazzar the King made a great feast to a thousand
            of his lords.                         --Dan. v. 1.
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   3. That which is partaken of, or shared in, with delight;
      something highly agreeable; entertainment.
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            The feast of reason, and the flow of soul. --Pope.
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   {Feast day}, a holiday; a day set as a solemn commemorative
      festival.

   Syn: Entertainment; regale; banquet; treat; carousal;
        festivity; festival.

   Usage: {Feast}, {Banquet}, {Festival}, {Carousal}. A feast
          sets before us viands superior in quantity, variety,
          and abundance; a banquet is a luxurious feast; a
          festival is the joyful celebration by good cheer of
          some agreeable event. Carousal is unrestrained
          indulgence in frolic and drink.
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Feast \Feast\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Feasted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Feasting}.] [OE. festen, cf. OF. fester to rest from work,
   F. f[^e]ter to celebrate a holiday. See {Feast}, n.]
   1. To eat sumptuously; to dine or sup on rich provisions,
      particularly in large companies, and on public festivals.
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            And his sons went and feasted in their houses.
                                                  --Job. i. 4.
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   2. To be highly gratified or delighted.
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            With my love's picture then my eye doth feast.
                                                  --Shak.
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FEAST, n.  A festival.  A religious celebration usually signalized by
gluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy person
distinguished for abstemiousness.  In the Roman Catholic Church
feasts are "movable" and "immovable," but the celebrants are uniformly
immovable until they are full.  In their earliest development these
entertainments took the form of feasts for the dead; such were held by
the Greeks, under the name _Nemeseia_, by the Aztecs and Peruvians,
as in modern times they are popular with the Chinese; though it is
believed that the ancient dead, like the modern, were light eaters. 
Among the many feasts of the Romans was the _Novemdiale_, which was
held, according to Livy, whenever stones fell from heaven.
    

FEAST
       Fast Data Enciphering Algorithm (cryptography)
       
    

Feast
as a mark of hospitality (Gen. 19:3; 2 Sam. 3:20; 2 Kings 6:23);
on occasions of domestic joy (Luke 15:23; Gen. 21:8); on
birthdays (Gen. 40:20; Job 1:4; Matt. 14:6); and on the occasion
of a marriage (Judg. 14:10; Gen. 29:22).

  Feasting was a part of the observances connected with the
offering up of sacrifices (Deut. 12:6, 7; 1 Sam. 9:19; 16:3, 5),
and with the annual festivals (Deut. 16:11). "It was one of the
designs of the greater solemnities, which required the
attendance of the people at the sacred tent, that the oneness of
the nation might be maintained and cemented together, by
statedly congregating in one place, and with one soul taking
part in the same religious services. But that oneness was
primarily and chiefly a religious and not merely a political
one; the people were not merely to meet as among themselves, but
with Jehovah, and to present themselves before him as one body;
the meeting was in its own nature a binding of themselves in
fellowship with Jehovah; so that it was not politics and
commerce that had here to do, but the soul of the Mosaic
dispensation, the foundation of the religious and political
existence of Israel, the covenant with Jehovah. To keep the
people's consciousness alive to this, to revive, strengthen, and
perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapated as these annual
feasts." (See {FESTIVALS}.)
    

133 Moby Thesaurus words for "feast":
      High Holiday, High Holy Day, Lucullan feast, Mardi Gras, Sabbath,
      Saturnalia, Sunday, allay, anniversary, appease, assuage,
      bank holiday, banquet, bean-feast, beano, birthday, blow, blowout,
      board, bread, bread and butter, carnival, celebration, cheer,
      church calendar, church feast, comestibles, commemoration,
      creature comfort, cuisine, daily bread, day of festivities,
      day off, delight, dine, do, do justice to, eat heartily, eat up,
      eatables, ecclesiastical calendar, edibles, entertain,
      entertainment, event, fair, fare, fare well, fast, fast food,
      feast day, feed, festal board, festival, festival day,
      festive occasion, festivity, fete, fete day, field day, fiesta,
      fixed feast, food, food and drink, foodstuff, gala, gala affair,
      gala day, gladden, gormandize, gratification, gratify,
      great doings, groaning board, health food, high day, high jinks,
      holiday, holy day, holytide, ingesta, jamboree, joyance,
      jubilation, jubilee, junk food, kermis, kitchen stuff,
      legal holiday, mad round, meal, meat, memorialization, merrymaking,
      observance, occasion, overindulge, party, picnic, please, pleasure,
      polish the platter, provender, provision, put it away, quench,
      red-letter day, refreshment, regale, regalement, repast, revel,
      revelment, revelry, rite, ritual, round of pleasures, sate,
      satiate, satisfy, slake, solemnization, spread, sustenance, table,
      treat, tucker, viands, victuals, vittles, waygoose, wayzgoose,
      wine and dine