Feast

How to spell feast

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce feast

What does feast mean?

1. nounA large, elaborate meal, often for a celebration or special occasion.
2. verbTo eat and drink heartily and with enjoyment.

Feast in a sentence

• noun

  The family prepared a huge feast for the holiday gathering.

• verb

  The guests began to feast as soon as the platters arrived.

• noun

  The wedding feast lasted well into the evening.

• verb

  They would feast on roast meat and fresh bread every winter.

Where does feast come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from the Old French feste, which meant a religious holiday or a joyful celebration. The French form itself came from the Latin festa, the plural of festum, meaning a holy day or festival, closely tied to the adjective festus, 'joyful' or 'festive'. English adopted it around the year 1200, first naming a religious festival or saint's day and only later widening to mean any lavish meal. The same Latin root survives in the modern words 'festival' and 'festive', and even in 'fiesta', which Spanish kept closer to the original. The original French spelling carried an 's' before the 't', and although English dropped that 's' from the related word 'feste' to give us 'fete', the older 'feast' kept its 'ea' vowel pair, which is the part that occasionally trips writers up.

How the word is built

• feast (from Latin festa: religious holidays, festivals)