• IPA: /ɡɹeɪz/

graze (plural grazes)

1. The act of grazing; a scratching or injuring lightly on passing.
2. A light abrasion; a slight scratch.

• French: éraflure
• German: Kratzen, Schrammen, Schaben, Schleifen, Schürfen
• Italian: sbucciatura
• Portuguese: arranhão, ralado, raspado
• Russian: задева́ние
• Spanish: rasguño, arañazo

• German: Kratzer, Schramme, Abschürfung, Schürfwunde
• Italian: escoriazione
• Portuguese: arranhão, ralado, raspado
• Russian: цара́пина
• Spanish: rasguño

graze (grazes, present participle grazing; past and past participle grazed)

1. (transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Considerations upon Two Bills Relating to the Clergy

     a field or two to graze his cows

   • 1999: Although it is perfectly good meadowland, none of the villagers has ever grazed animals on the meadow on the other side of the wall. — Stardust, Neil Gaiman, page 4 (2001 Perennial Edition).
2. (ambitransitive) To feed on; to eat (growing herbage); to eat grass from (a pasture)

   Cattle graze in the meadows.

   • 1712, Alexander Pope, Messiah:

     The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead.

   • 1993, John Montroll, Origami Inside-Out (page 41)

     The bird [Canada goose] is more often found on land than other waterfowl because of its love for seeds and grains. The long neck is well adapted for grazing.

3. (transitive) To tend (cattle, etc.) while grazing.
   • 1596-98, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act I, scene iii:

     Shylock: When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep

4. (intransitive) To eat periodically throughout the day, rather than at fixed mealtimes.
   • 2008, Mohgah Elsheikh, ‎Caroline Murphy, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

     Furthermore, people who take the time to sit down to proper meals find their food more satisfying than people who graze throughout the day. If you skip meals, you will inevitably end up snacking on more high-fat high-sugar foods.

5. To shoplift by consuming food or drink items before reaching the checkout.
   • 1992, Shoplifting (page 18)

     Grazing refers to customers who consume food items before paying for them, for example, a customer bags one and a half pounds of grapes in the produce department, eats some as she continues her shopping […]

   • 2001, Labor Arbitration Information System (volume 2, page 59)

     Had the Grievant attempted to pay for the Mylanta or actually paid for it, then she would not be guilty of grazing or shoplifting.

6. (transitive) To rub or touch lightly the surface of (a thing) in passing.

   the bullet grazed the wall

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 23

     But in that gale, the port, the land, is that ship’s direst jeopardy; she must fly all hospitality; one touch of land, though it but graze the keel, would make her shudder through and through.

7. (transitive) To cause a slight wound to; to scratch.

   to graze one's knee

8. (intransitive) To yield grass for grazing.
   • 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie: In Ten Centuries

     The sewers must be kept so as the water may not stay too long in the spring; for then the ground continueth the wet, whereby it will never graze to purpose that year.

• German: grasen lassen, weiden lassen, beweiden
• Italian: pascolare
• Portuguese: dar de pastar
• Russian: пасти́
• Spanish: pastear

• French: brouter, paître, pâturer
• German: weiden, grasen
• Italian: pascere, pascolare, brucare
• Portuguese: pastar
• Russian: пасти́сь
• Spanish: pacer, pastar

• French: faire paître, paître (archaic)
• German: hüten, grasen lassen, weiden lassen
• Italian: pascere
• Russian: пасти́

• German: touchieren, streifen, ankratzen, schrammen
• Italian: sfiorare, lambire, rasentare, radere
• Portuguese: arranhar, raspar, ralar
• Russian: цара́пать

• German: abschürfen, schürfen, ankratzen
• Italian: sbucciare, spellare, scorticare, escoriare
• Portuguese: arranhar, ralar
• Russian: поцара́пать