Forage

/ˈfɔːrɪdʒ/

verbBeginner📊CommonGeneral
2 meanings1 idiom/phrase3 questions

Definitions

2 meanings
1

To search for food or provisions.

/ˈfɔːrɪdʒ/

verbneutralBeginner
General

To search widely for food or provisions.

The soldiers foraged for supplies after the battle.

💡 Simply: Imagine you're really, really hungry and you have to look around for something to eat, like searching for snacks in the kitchen. That's foraging!

👶 For kids: Looking for food, like a squirrel searching for nuts!

More Examples

2

During the winter, deer often forage for food in the fields.

3

She spent the afternoon foraging for wild mushrooms in the woods.

How It's Used

Wildlife

"The bear foraged for berries in the forest."

Survival

"Stranded hikers must forage for edible plants."

2

The act of searching for food or supplies.

/ˈfɔːrɪdʒ/

nounneutralBeginner
General

The act of searching for food or provisions.

The tribe relied on foraging to survive.

💡 Simply: When you're looking around for something to eat, that act of looking is called foraging. Like, the whole process.

👶 For kids: When animals or people look for food. That is the forage!

More Examples

2

The soldiers set out on a foraging mission to find supplies.

3

Bees are important in the foraging process of plants.

How It's Used

Military

"The troops went on a foraging expedition."

Ecology

"The birds' foraging habits are dependent on the season."

Tip:Think of the noun form as the activity itself, the 'foraging trip'.

Idioms & expressions

forage for information

To gather information from various sources, often in a scattered or disorganized manner.

"The journalist had to forage for information from multiple sources to complete her story."

From Old French *forage*, related to *fourrage* ("fodder, food for animals"), which comes from *fuerre* ("fodder").

Historically used in military contexts to describe the search for supplies by soldiers.

Memory tip

Imagine a hungry animal searching the ground—foraging for food.

Word Origin

LanguageOld French
Original meaning

"fodder"

Base: forage
forage for foodforage for informationforage in the woodsforaging expedition

Common misspellings

forageingforadge

Usage

40%Spoken
60%Written