Meaning & use
pasture
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A field of grass where farm animals such as cows or sheep feed.
Grammar: Countable for a field, uncountable for grazing land in general: a green pasture; lush pasture.
Patterns
- in the pasture
- out to pasture
The cows spent the summer in the high pasture.
Sheep were grazing in the pasture behind the barn.
Heavy rain left the pasture too muddy to use.
verbtransitive
To put animals on grass land so that they can eat it.
Grammar: Takes an object: pasture the cattle.
Patterns
- pasture animals on something
Farmers pasture their sheep on the hills in spring.
They pastured the horses in the lower field.
Word forms
| plural | pastures |
|---|---|
| third person singular | pastures |
| past tense | pastured |
| past participle | pastured |
| -ing form | pasturing |
Common combinations
- green pasture
- The herd moved to a green pasture.
- put out to pasture
- The old racehorse was put out to pasture.
- graze in the pasture
- Goats graze in the pasture all day.
- pastures new
- After ten years, she moved on to pastures new.
- rotate pastures
- They rotate pastures so the grass can recover.
Synonyms and how they differ
- meadow
- Meadow is a grassy field that may be cut for hay and often sounds more scenic than pasture.
- grassland
- Grassland is a broad term for land covered mainly by grass, not necessarily used for animals.
- paddock
- A paddock is a small enclosed field, usually for horses, while a pasture may be much larger.
- grazing land
- Grazing land is a plain descriptive phrase, while pasture sounds more rural and traditional.
Word family
Commonly confused: pasture or pastor?
pasture vs pastor
A pastor is a church leader, not a field, even though both words come from the same Latin root meaning to feed.
Practice
The farmer moved the cows to a fresh ___ so they could graze.
Choose one answer.
A pasture is grass land for grazing. Pastry, posture and past look similar but have unrelated meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pasture”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.