Meaning & use
green pastures
Last updated
Meanings
nounplural
Fields covered with healthy grass where animals can graze.
Grammar: Literal use; usually plural.
Patterns
- graze in green pastures
The sheep wandered through green pastures all summer.
Green pastures stretched down to the river.
Cows grazed in the green pastures.
nounpluralfigurative
A better situation, job or life, especially one that offers more opportunity or comfort.
Grammar: Figurative use; often greener pastures.
Patterns
- move on to greener pastures
- seek greener pastures
He left the firm for greener pastures abroad.
Many young people leave the village for greener pastures.
She is looking for greener pastures after ten years here.
Word forms
| singular | green pasture |
|---|
Common combinations
- greener pastures
- After the layoffs, many staff sought greener pastures.
- move on to green pastures
- He plans to move on to green pastures.
- lush green pastures
- The valley was full of lush green pastures.
- leave for greener pastures
- She left the club for greener pastures.
Synonyms and how they differ
- better prospects
- Better prospects is neutral and literal, while green pastures is more colorful and suggests a hoped-for improvement.
- new opportunities
- New opportunities focuses on chances, while greener pastures suggests escape from a worse place.
- meadows
- Meadows is only literal and describes grassy fields.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: green pastures or green fields?
green pastures vs green fields
Green fields is literal, while green pastures often carries the idea of a better future.
Practice
After years of low pay, she decided to look for ___ elsewhere.
Choose one answer.
Greener pastures is the idiom for a better situation. The other options make no idiomatic sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “green pastures”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.