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.
These ranchers have also grappled with high costs for necessities like animal feed, pasture maintenance and farm labor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Out to pasture: The Cold War spy thriller “Ponies” has been canceled after just 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
"The middle class was shown this green pasture," he says.
From BBC ● May 26, 2026
Dad and Luke were on the mountain, in the junkyard above the upper pasture, a quarter mile from the house.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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
Pasture and range conditions have also seen slight improvements since early May, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, but soil moisture continues to be low across the state.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 7, 2023
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
And out of what black depths, and across what vistas of hope and despair and love and anguish, she looked back to that scene in the golden summer, in the Forbidden Pasture.
From The Heart of Thunder Mountain by Fischer, Anton Otto
Drought conditions on cattle pastures have limited how many animals ranchers have been able to produce in recent years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
If Lily, Mopple and the rest can set their part of the world right, there’s no reason we can’t find our way to better pastures, too.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
"Our pastures have been closed off because of an exploratory drilling plan for a gold mine," said Nuriye Dilek, a 48-year-old livestock farmer.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
America’s beef cattle are typically raised on ranches where they graze on open pastures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
‘Because we is meant to be in the middle of London and suddenly we is in green pastures.’
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
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
The day includes a tour of the farm and a discussion of raising pastured pigs; butchering a whole hog and talking about various muscles and cooking applications; and making fresh sausage to take home.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 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
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
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
We spent the night with Father’s friends, pasturing the cattle in one of their fields.
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
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.
