Forms: 7,–5 fest(e(n, -in, -yn, 4 feaste, 5 feest, 6 feasten, 6– feast. [ME. festen, ad. OF. fester (Fr. fêter), f. feste Feast sb.]
1. intr. To make or partake of a feast, fare sumptuously, regale oneself. Also with on, upon, and to feast it.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 1578.
| Teller of jeste is ofte myslike | |
| Riband festeth also with tripe. |
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2157, Ariadne. There festen they, there dauncen they and synge.
1483. Cath. Angl., 128/2. To Feste.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., IV. iv. 65.
| Did this Companion with the saffron face | |
| Reuell and feast it at my house to-day[?] |
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, I. xxviii. 48–9. When the Sun-bak’d Peasant goes to feast it with a Gentleman, he washes, and brushes, and kersies himself in his Holy-day cloathes.
1691. Hartcliffe, Virtues, 71. It is a foolish Thing for Men to think, they honour a Martyr, by feasting on his Festival, who, in his Life-time, pleased God chiefly by his Fastings.
1819. Shelley, The Cyclops, 365.
| The Cyclops vermilion, | |
| With slaughter uncloying, | |
| Now feasts on the dead, | |
| In the flesh of strangers joying! |
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1136.
| Geraint … bad the host | |
| Call in what men soever were his friends, | |
| And feast with these in honour of their earl. |
fig. c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet xlvii.
| With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast | |
| And to the painted banquet bids my heart. |
1768. Warton, Verse of Oxford Newsman, in Oxford Sausage (1822), 177.
| At length we change our wonted note | |
| And feast, all winter, on a vote. |
1825. Lytton, Falkland, 13. I have, as it were, feasted upon the passions.
1871. G. Meredith, H. Richmond, xxv. (1887), 226. The princess … let her eyes feast incessantly on a laughing sea.
† b. To keep holiday, give oneself to pleasure; to enjoy oneself. Obs.
1608. Shaks., Per., I. iv. 107.
| Feast here a while, | |
| Untill our stars that frown, lend us a smile. |
c. To feast away, to drive away by feasting; to pass (time) in feasting.
1621. Bp. Hall, Heaven upon Earth, § 6. Feast away thy cares.
1733. Fielding, Don Quix. in Eng., II. v.
| Then hungry homeward we return, | |
| To feast away the night. |
2. trans. To provide a feast for, regale. Also refl.
1340–70. Alisaunder, 978. Whan hee is fare fro fight · his folke for too feaste.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 335. Religious þat riche ben shulde rather feste beggeres þan burgeys.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, I. xxi. The kynge and all … that were fested that day.
1570–6. Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent (1826), 256. The Lorde Bartholomew … magnificently feasted there the Queene.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., V. v. Wks. 1856, I. 140. Here lies a dish to feast thy fathers gorge.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, III. v. 80.
| Hope, the world’s welcome, and his standing Guest, | |
| Fed by the Rich, but feasted by the Poor. |
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 179. Our men might be said not to refresh but to feast themselves here with fresh provisions.
1849. G. P. R. James, The Woodman, v. Arrangements made for feasting the number of forty in the stranger’s hall.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. xx. The guests were all feasted after this initial ceremony.
fig. c. 1300. Havelok, 2938.
| Hauelok anon bigan ful rathe | |
| His denshe men to feste wel | |
| With riche landes and catel. |
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 318. Fiat-uoluntas-tua festeþ hym eche day.
1607. Shaks., Timon, III. vi. 36. Feast your eares with the Musicke awhile.
1653. Walton, Angler, 46. A companion that feasts the company with wit and mirth, and leaves out the sin.
1701. Farquhar, Sir H. Wildair, V. v. We’ll charm our ears with Abel’s voice; feast our eyes with one another.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XII. xiii. With the Gypsies he had feasted only his understanding.
1816. J. Wilson, City of Plague, III. i. 163.
| I know not why | |
| My soul thus longs to feast itself on terror. |
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. vii. 256. It was the interest of the servants in India, diligently cultivated, perpetually to feast the Company with the most flattering accounts of the state of their affairs.
1857. Willmott, Pleas. Lit., xi. 45. Pope, at twelve, feasted his eyes in the picture-galleries of Spenser.
3. In a more general sense: To entertain hospitably and sumptuously.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xiii. 48. She doeth make grete appareylles for to feeste Eneas ryghte highely.
1548. Hall, Chron., 184 b. They were of Philippe, duke of Bourgoyne, wel receyved and fested.
1600. E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, 30. The Duke of Medina Sidonia feasted the King, with chasing of buls.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., III. iv. 2. How shall I feast him? What bestow of him?
Hence Feasted ppl. a. Feasting ppl. a.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 158/1. Festyd, or fed wythe goode mete and drynke, convivatus.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., IV. lii. 58.
| With THEE may make up Marriage! and my whole | |
| Self THEE for Bridegroom have! My Hope still sends | |
| Up Come, that I may enter with thy feasted Friends! |
1674. Dryden, State Innocence, 17.
| Adam. All these are ours, all nature’s excellence | |
| Whose tast or smell can bless the feasted sence. |
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., V. iii. 86.
| For here lies Juliet, and her beautie makes | |
| This Vault a feasting presence full of light. |
