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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Human Geography - Middle School
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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:
Livestock and crops die where pasture and water supplies are buried or contaminated by ash.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
“The Rhône is a land of olive oil,” he writes, “the Rhine a pasture full of butter, the Po alive with the aromas of Parmesan and prosciutto.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 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
The sheep—there were four hundred and fifty or so—were kept outside in a small forest-sheltered pasture to the rear of a large metal barn.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
According to Aimee Picchi of CBS News, “The Kirkland Signature Organic Pasture Raised 24-Count Eggs were sold at 25 Costco locations across several states.”
From Salon ● Dec. 3, 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
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
Rancher Jay Fetcher said that with climate change, the snow is melting much earlier in the spring on his high-elevation pastures.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
But the summer's drought, which affected 95 percent of mainland France in July, has left normally rich pastures dry and bare.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
But that focus on greener pastures is as persistent as the apparent blood feud between Texas and Tennessee.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
There were great stables, where a dozen grooms and boys held forth, rows of vine-clad servants’ cottages, an endless and orderly array of outhouses, long grape arbors, green pastures, orchards, and berry patches.
From "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London
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
Cows and sheep should not be allowed to roam over public lands and should be pastured in fenced areas and protected by guard dogs.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2023
When pastured animals graze in areas that are dry or in drought, the pastures are often irrigated or the animals are given feed.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2022
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
White ranchers pastured cattle there, especially during the dry years when no grass grew below the mountain.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
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
It’s late Sunday morning, and everyone has gone to Otavalo except me and the other maids, who are pasturing the cows in the valley.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
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