# feast
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: fēst, IPA: /fiːst/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -iːst

### Etymology 1

From Middle English feeste, feste, borrowed from Old French feste, from Late Latin festa, from the plural of Latin festum (“holiday, festival, feast”), from Proto-Italic *fēs-tos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰéh₁s (“god, godhead, deity”); see also Ancient Greek θεός (theós, “god, goddess”). More at theo-. Doublet of fete, fiesta, and fest. Displaced Old English winhate.

#### Noun

feast (plural feasts)
* A holiday, festival, especially a religious one
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 13:6:The seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 2:41:Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.
* A very large meal, often of a ceremonial nature.
    Synonym: banquet
    We had a feast to celebrate the harvest.
* Something delightful
    It was a feast for the eyes.

##### Derived terms

* a contented mind is a perpetual feast
* afterfeast
* Barmecide feast
* bean-feast
* beanfeast
* bean feast
* birthfeast
* bull feast
* double feast
* Dutch feast
* enough is as good as a feast
* feast day
* feaster
* feast for the eyes
* feastful
* feastless
* feastlike
* feastly
* Feast of Asses
* Feast of Fools
* Feast of Light
* Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary
* Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels
* Feast of the Circumcision of Christ
* Feast of the Divine Mercy
* Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus
* Feast of Trumpets
* Feast of Tsing Ming
* Feast of Weeks
* feast one's eyes
* feast or famine
* feastware
* Feast Week
* feasty
* festive
* fixed feast
* forefeast
* ghost at the feast
* Great Feasts
* hog feast
* love feast
* midnight feast
* movable feast
* moveable feast
* postfeast
* prefeast
* run feast
* silver feast
* silver-feast
* skeleton at the feast
* smell-feast
* specter at the feast
* spectre at the feast

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English feesten, festen, from Old French fester, from Medieval Latin festāre, from the noun. See above.

#### Verb

feast (third-person singular simple present feasts, present participle feasting, simple past and past participle feasted)
* (intransitive) To partake in a feast, or large meal.
    I feasted on turkey and dumplings.
* (intransitive) To dwell upon (something) with delight.
** 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 47”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:With my love's picture then my eye doth feast.
* (transitive) To hold a feast in honor of (someone).
** 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:He that shall see this day, and live old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors And say “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian.”
    We feasted them after the victory.
* (transitive, obsolete) To serve as a feast for; to feed sumptuously.
** 1597–1598, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum
    Or once a week, perhaps, for novelty / Reez'd bacon-soords shall feast his family.

##### Derived terms

* feaster
* feasting
* feast one's eyes
* feast one’s eyes
* outfeast
* unfeasted

##### Translations
### Anagrams

* Fates, fetas, Festa, TAFEs, feats, festa, fates, atefs