- present participle of fast.
fasting
Americannoun
-
fastings
plural
adjective
-
abstaining from eating or drinking, from certain foods or drinks, or from a particular habitual activity for a period.
-
(of a blood sugar test or its result) using or based on blood taken from a person after they have abstained from eating for a prescribed period.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Explanation
Fasting is going for a certain length of time without eating anything. Sometimes fasting is required before you have surgery, like getting your wisdom teeth removed. Often fasting is done for medical or health reasons, or in an attempt to lose weight. For many other people, fasting is an important part of their religious observance. Fasting is done by Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Jews, among other groups. Fasting comes from fast, which in turn has an Old English root, fæsten, "voluntary abstinence from food or drink, especially as a religious duty."
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:
"We lived a quiet normal life, fasting for a few days then having a small meal," Shukrani said.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Beyond weight loss, intermittent fasting is often held up as a path to better health — from sharper mental clarity and improved insulin sensitivity to a longer life and cellular repair.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Intermittent fasting is a way of eating whereby you only consume food during certain windows of time.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
After Wangchuk and others were moved to hospital, Neha continued fasting despite having lost 8kg.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Ocean thought Navid was hilarious, and I tried to explain that he wasn’t doing a bit, that Navid was really just, like, super annoying when he was fasting, and Ocean shrugged.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
His prayers and fastings so weakened the body, that frequently for hours and sometimes for days he would lose consciousness, and fall into death-like swoons.
From Glories of Spain by Charles W. (William) Wood
He wasted his body with fastings and watching.
From Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family by Elizabeth Rundle Charles
On occasions where great faith was required, fastings were recommended by the Savior.
From The Gospel Day Or, the Light of Christianity by Charles Ebert Orr
It might have been the resort of that Hannah who departed not from the Temple but served the Lord with fastings and with prayers day and night.
From Ellen Middleton—A Tale by Georgiana Fullerton
Prayer, fastings, manipulations, and all practicable privacy and quiet were his preferred appliances for closing up the devil’s avenues of access, and of barring him off from man.
From Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Allen Putnam
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
