forage
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
-
to collect forage from; strip of supplies; plunder.
to forage the countryside.
-
to supply with forage.
-
to obtain by foraging.
noun
-
food for horses or cattle, esp hay or straw
-
the act of searching for food or provisions
-
military a raid or incursion
verb
-
to search (the countryside or a town) for food, provisions, etc
-
(intr) military to carry out a raid
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(tr) to obtain by searching about
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(tr) to give food or other provisions to
-
(tr) to feed (cattle or horses) with such food
Synonym Usage
See feed.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foragesimple
-
foragessimple
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have foragedperfect
-
has foragedperfect
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am foragingprogressive
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are foragingprogressive
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is foragingprogressive
-
have been foragingperfect progressive
-
has been foragingperfect progressive
Past
-
foragedsimple
-
had foragedperfect
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was foragingprogressive
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were foragingprogressive
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had been foragingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of forage
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Old French fourrage, derivative of fuerre fodder (from Germanic )
Explanation
To forage is to wander around looking for food. When it’s cold and snowy outside, birds may forage for food in your backyard, digging around for whatever they can find. The verb forage often describes animals searching for food, but it can also be applied to people. In those circumstances it retains the slightly desperate sense of coming up with whatever is available. For example, if you want to cook dinner but have no time to go to the grocery store, you might forage your refrigerator and cabinets to find good substitutes for ingredients in your recipe.
Vocabulary lists containing forage
Touching Spirit Bear
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The One and Only Ivan
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"The Hunger Games" Vocabulary from Chapter 1
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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:
Bumblebees can accumulate dramatically higher levels of toxic heavy metals than honeybees, even when both species forage in the same area, according to new research from the University of Cambridge.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 7, 2026
Simply knowing a predator is nearby can alter where animals travel, when they are active, and how they forage, creating effects that spread throughout an ecosystem.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
It enabled our ancestors to forage for food and water during the hottest period of the day, with sweat to keep them from overheating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
The rescue service said the prolonged harsh weather conditions placed significant strain on many wildlife species that relied on calmer conditions to forage successfully.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026
On August 12, he dragged himself out of the bus to forage for berries, after posting a plea for assistance in the unlikely event that someone would stop by while he was away.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Chef Mo, who owns a tiny hole-in-the-wall eatery in Jeonju, forages her own mushrooms on the mountainside, grows produce in her backyard and makes most of her laborious, time-intensive dishes from scratch.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2025
The land he forages straddles the Muscogee Nation and the Cherokee Nation, and he’s thinking of his elisi — grandmother in Cherokee — who taught him how to pick and cook wild onions.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 27, 2024
Rayan Ait-Nouri forages forward from left back for Wolves, reaching the box and managing to get a shot away.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2024
A curious sea otter pup peeks out from behind a column of kelp while it forages for crabs or snails off California’s Monterey Bay.
From National Geographic ● Nov. 14, 2023
Emma didn’t mind his experiments with her flowers or his forages into her sewing box for threads to use in his experiments.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
But officials said the man, who was described as being of “Hispanic descent,” died after eating wild mushrooms foraged at a regional park in the county.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 8, 2026
If you’ve eaten a foraged mushroom and start to exhibit any adverse symptoms, call California’s poison control hotline at 1-800-222-1222 for free, confidential expert advice in multiple languages.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2026
Their diet centered on smaller marine mammals including harbor seals and harbor porpoises, and they usually traveled and foraged in groups of about five.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2025
“With these foraged apples, you can sprinkle that in to add complexity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
“You are truly in nature now! Together with your packs, you will live off what you have foraged and spend the night in your shelter. But that is not all,” he said with a grin.
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
As day breaks over Wimbledon tennis club, Rufus the hawk is poised, ready to protect the world-famous immaculate grass courts from flocks of greedy pigeons foraging for seeds.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
In healthy soils, these fungal networks can expand the effective foraging area of plant roots by up to 100 times and provide > 80 percent of a plant's phosphorous needs.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 15, 2026
This would be followed by a “substitution” phase where farming develops alongside foraging in the hunter-gatherer area, and eventually a “consolidation” phase, when farming predominates.
From Science Daily ● May 30, 2026
California officials warn Northern and Central Coast residents against foraging for mushrooms amid poisoning outbreak.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
So I wandered into the jungle with the group, staying a ways back and foraging whichever berries and plums and shoots I recognized.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
