Feast


[feest] /fist/

noun
1.
any rich or abundant meal:
The steak dinner was a feast.
2.
a sumptuous entertainment or meal for many guests:
a wedding feast.
3.
something highly agreeable:
The Rembrandt exhibition was a feast for the eyes.
4.
a periodical celebration or time of celebration, usually of a religious nature, commemorating an event, person, etc.:
Every year, in September, the townspeople have a feast in honor of their patron saint.
verb (used without object)
5.
to have or partake of a feast; eat sumptuously.
6.
to dwell with gratification or delight, as on a picture or view.
verb (used with object)
7.
to provide or entertain with a feast.
Idioms
8.
feast one’s eyes, to gaze with great joy, admiration, or relish:
to feast one’s eyes on the Grand Canyon.
/fiːst/
noun
1.
a large and sumptuous meal, usually given as an entertainment for several people
2.
a periodic religious celebration
3.
something extremely pleasing or sumptuous: a feast for the eyes
4.
movable feast, a festival or other event of variable date
verb
5.
(intransitive)

6.
(transitive) to give a feast to
7.
(intransitive) foll by on. to take great delight (in): to feast on beautiful paintings
8.
(transitive) to regale or delight: to feast one’s mind or one’s eyes
n.

c.1200, “religious anniversary characterized by rejoicing” (rather than fasting), from Old French feste (12c., Modern French fête) “religious festival; noise, racket,” from Vulgar Latin *festa (fem. singular; also source of Italian festa, Spanish fiesta), from Latin festa “holidays, feasts,” noun use of neuter plural of festus “festive, joyful, merry,” related to feriae “holiday” and fanum “temple,” from PIE *dhes- “root of words in religious concepts” [Watkins]. The spelling -ea- was used in Middle English to represent the sound we mis-call “long e.” Meaning “abundant meal” (whether public or private) is from late 14c.
v.

c.1300, “partake of a feast,” from Old French fester, from feste (see feast (n.)). Related: Feasted; feasting.

as a mark of hospitality (Gen. 19:3; 2 Sam. 3:20; 2 Kings 6:23); on occasions of domestic joy (Luke 15:23; Gen. 21:8); on birthdays (Gen. 40:20; Job 1:4; Matt. 14:6); and on the occasion of a marriage (Judg. 14:10; Gen. 29:22). Feasting was a part of the observances connected with the offering up of sacrifices (Deut. 12:6, 7; 1 Sam. 9:19; 16:3, 5), and with the annual festivals (Deut. 16:11). “It was one of the designs of the greater solemnities, which required the attendance of the people at the sacred tent, that the oneness of the nation might be maintained and cemented together, by statedly congregating in one place, and with one soul taking part in the same religious services. But that oneness was primarily and chiefly a religious and not merely a political one; the people were not merely to meet as among themselves, but with Jehovah, and to present themselves before him as one body; the meeting was in its own nature a binding of themselves in fellowship with Jehovah; so that it was not politics and commerce that had here to do, but the soul of the Mosaic dispensation, the foundation of the religious and political existence of Israel, the covenant with Jehovah. To keep the people’s consciousness alive to this, to revive, strengthen, and perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapated as these annual feasts.” (See FESTIVALS.)

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  • Feaster

    [feest] /fist/ noun 1. any rich or abundant meal: The steak dinner was a feast. 2. a sumptuous entertainment or meal for many guests: a wedding feast. 3. something highly agreeable: The Rembrandt exhibition was a feast for the eyes. 4. a periodical celebration or time of celebration, usually of a religious nature, commemorating an […]

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  • Feast-of-fools

    noun 1. (especially in France) a mock-religious celebration in the Middle Ages, held on or about January 1.


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