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.
to feed (livestock) by putting them out to graze on pasture.
(of land) to furnish with pasture.
(of livestock) to graze upon.
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
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
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Out to pasture: Despite a big-name cast, apparently good ratings and an Emmy push, Netflix has canceled the sci-fi thriller “The Boroughs” after one season.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
"This will be our last year," Deliev said, driving his cows to pasture in the Rhodope mountains.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
Rows of solar panels carefully laid around pasture boundaries ripple across fields near the hamlet of Cambridge, England.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
They parked it in the pasture of one friend’s farm, called it the Cedar Hill Country Club, and had countless sleepovers during high school and college.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
“Let’s get the chores done in the house and let Alfredo check on the corn and the sugar in the fields and take the cows and goats to pasture, and then we’ll get started.”
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
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
She says the federal Pasture, Rangeland, Forage insurance program doesn’t accept data from weather stations closer to her.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 5, 2018
Dakang Australia's Chinese parent company is Hunan Dakang Pasture Farming, a private Chinese company which also has major stakes in New Zealand's dairy industry.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2016
As has been said, the cliff, at the summit of which were the cave dwellings, lay about half a mile back from the huts of the Far Pasture cow-punchers.
From The Boy Scouts On The Range by Payson, Lieut. Howard
"It rained a lot this winter; the pastures were very overgrown," Rodriguez said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
Four years ago, a major drought dried up pastures and water supplies, forcing ranchers to sell their livestock.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Visitors were greeted by security forces in flak jackets, some in military camouflage and others toting submachine guns, scattered amid a landscape of green pastures, wooden chalets and snowy peaks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
His family have been grazing cattle on the lush pastures of Charlton Musgrove, near Wincanton in Somerset, for 350 years.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
As long as the boy knew how to find the best pastures in Andalusia, they would be his friends.
From "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho
More recently, Lake, who grows vegetables such as asparagus, tomatoes and zucchini, as well as pastured meat, has been using software and an app from a company called Tend.
From BBC ● Jan. 19, 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
Cooking more at home, eliminating ultra-processed food, choosing grass-fed beef, dairy products and pastured eggs from certified humane companies all go a long way in helping to shift away from eating a high omega-6 diet.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2023
Lee sources the beef for her burgers from Seven Hills Food, the slaughterhouse and processing facility that specializes in pastured Virginia beef.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2021
All morning, Matilde and I pastured the cows and sheep together, with Cheetah close at my side.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
The tradition of alpine pasturing, or “transhumance,” spreads all across the Alps, including Austria, Italy and Germany.
From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2024
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
Three of his young men were afield, pasturing herds in other woods; one he had sent with a fat boar for tribute into town, the boy to serve while the suitors got their fill.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
