pasture
noun
an area covered with grass or other plants used or suitable for the grazing of livestock; grassland.
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pasture
1 American
[pas-cher, pahs-]
/ ˈpæs tʃər, ˈpɑs- /
noun
-
pastures
plural
-
Also called pastureland. an area covered with grass or other plants used or suitable for the grazing of livestock; grassland.
-
a specific area or piece of such ground.
-
grass or other plants for feeding livestock.
verb (used with object)
-
pastures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pastured,
past participle, past
-
pasturing
present participle
-
to feed (livestock) by putting them out to graze on pasture.
-
(of land) to furnish with pasture.
-
(of livestock) to graze upon.
verb (used without object)
-
pastures,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pastured,
past participle, past
-
pasturing
present participle
idioms
Pasture
2
American
[pah-tyr]
/ pɑˈtür /
noun
pasture
British
/ ˈpɑːstʃə /
noun
-
land covered with grass or herbage and grazed by or suitable for grazing by livestock
-
a specific tract of such land
-
the grass or herbage growing on it
verb
pasture
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pasturesimple
-
pasturessimple
-
have pasturedperfect
-
has pasturedperfect
-
am pasturingprogressive
-
are pasturingprogressive
-
is pasturingprogressive
-
have been pasturingperfect progressive
-
has been pasturingperfect progressive
Past
-
pasturedsimple
-
had pasturedperfect
-
was pasturingprogressive
-
were pasturingprogressive
-
had been pasturingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pasture
1250–1300; Middle English < Middle French < Late Latin pāstūra, equivalent to Latin pāst ( us ), past participle of pāscere to feed, pasture ( cf. pastor) + -ūra -ure
Explanation
If your cattle are feeling hungry, you should let them pasture, or graze, in a grassy field known as a pasture. Pasture is both a noun and a verb associated with grazing animals. As a noun, a pasture is a field where animals such as horses and cattle can graze, or feed. Pasture can also refer to the grasses or other plants that grow in a pasture. As a verb, pasture means "to graze" or "to release animals into a pasture for grazing." You also might hear this word used in the idiom "Put out to pasture," which means "to retire someone," usually because of old age.
Vocabulary lists containing pasture
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Today, they run about 250 head on grass they have placed under a permanent conservation easement, selling meat directly to customers and field-harvesting each animal on the pasture where it has lived its whole life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Livestock and crops die where pasture and water supplies are buried or contaminated by ash.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
“There’s no paid staff, and we mostly support niche tech projects, like people exploring new ways to preserve trees in Morocco or to regeneratively regrow a pasture in Oregon,” Khosla told me.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
Back in the pasture, Namgyal moved the herd down the fence line.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Their children spied on the pasture and saw the boy come out of the black bull’s belly every day.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
While visiting the farm, I meet Jimmy Woodrow, who runs Pasture for Life.
From BBC ● May 29, 2025
In late February, stores nationwide began removing signs and artwork that feature phrases like “No Antibiotics Ever,” “Vegetarian Fed,” “Grass Fed Pasture Raised,” “Animal Welfare,” or any mention of “Hormones,” according to the documents.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2024
Peaceful and quiet are a pair of words that appear like incantations in the passages of Winter Pasture devoted to her deepest feelings.
From Slate ● Feb. 24, 2021
At the small pebble beach near a park called Blackies Pasture, a surgical mask is tangled in the marsh at the edge of the Bay.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2020
Pasture in severalty—30 acres, at 12d. an acre.
From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Paul Vinogradoff
The Cotswolds was badly hit by the drought, leaving grazing pastures brown and without any nutrition for the cows.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Authorities have also allowed a temporary easing of strict rules for making several types of cheese after heatwaves scorched grazing pastures.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
In the Rocky Mountains, years of extreme heat and drought have baked the landscape, drying up streams that feed the Colorado River and desiccating pastures where cattle graze.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
But that focus on greener pastures is as persistent as the apparent blood feud between Texas and Tennessee.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
It goes over a bridge and passes cattle pastures with large rolls of hay.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
Makers of Abondance cheese in the Alps, for example, will be authorised to reduce the amount of pastured grass in their animals' diet from 50% to 15%.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
And while players won’t get free laundry and dry cleaning, or a menu containing pastured eggs and wild-caught seafood in player dining, they at least get access to cold plunges and courtesy cars.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
Shopping for 100% grassfed beef or pastured chicken used to mean seeking out a specialty butcher shop, visiting a farmers' market, or going straight to the source by stopping by a local farm.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2021
Last year, $14-per-pound exotic mushrooms, $20 pastured chickens and $50 bottles of olive oil were not uncommon purchases.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 4, 2019
Not only that, but the kind of fats in pastured animals are the ones that are healthier for us to eat.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
In the past 30 years, swaths of Nicaragua's vast Caribbean forests have been destroyed by settlers clearing land for agriculture, ranchers pasturing cattle, and loggers harvesting precious wood.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2020
“We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 19, 2015
“And what is the history? The horse pasturing has been going on for a long time there with no objection.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 24, 2015
The horse in question, Raisa, might have expected a quiet pasturing after a working life carrying members of the Metropolitan Police Service.
From Time ● Mar. 28, 2012
More and more, I find myself hovering at the edge of the schoolyard, always with an excuse, like picking avocadoes from the trees by the fence, or pasturing the cow.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
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