Forage v.

Forms: 5–8 forrage, 6 four(r)age, 6– forage. [ad. F. fourrager, f. fourrage: see prec.]

  1.  trans. To collect forage from; to overrun (a country) for the purpose of obtaining or destroying supplies; to lay under contribution for forage. Also in wider sense, to plunder, pillage, ravage.

1417.  in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. I. 56. Takeinge his cheefe place and goodes, burninge, forrageing, & destroyinge all his contry, his corne, and his other goodes.

1569.  Stocker, trans. Diod. Sic., I. xv. 24. They besieged the Locrians, and spoyled and fouraged their territories.

1618.  Bolton, Florus (1636), 319. They, having first foraged their next neighbours, retired themselves within their defences.

1650.  Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, I. 357. Those fond entertainers, who having forraged the elements of aire, earth and water for provision fpr their guests, still excuse their cheer for being no better.

1700.  Astry, trans. Saavedra-Faxardo, III. 247. To raise a great number of Soldiers, suffering them to Forage whole Countries, with a Design, as some thought, to oppress and weaken them, so that they should never after be able to make head against his Forces, or else by this Licentiousness to enervate the Army it self.

1852.  Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. xxxiii. 280. Llewellyn’s desire was to make himself King of all Wales: and with this object he invaded Powysland, and nearly ruined Gwenwynwnyn, the prince of that district; after which he foraged the lands of the Earl of Chester.

1865.  Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., IX. XXI. ii. 262. Noble and Peasant had been pillaged, ransomed, foraged, eaten-out by so many different Armies; nothing now left them but life and miserable rags.

  transf. and fig.  1641.  Sir E. Dering, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 295. Woe is our Churches Portion, for our Bishop-President is lost, and grown a Stranger to us: and in his Room is crept in and stept up a Lordly Prelate, made proud with Pomp and Ease; who neglecting the best part of his Office in God’s Vineyard, instead of supporting the weak, and binding up the broken, forrageth the Vines, and drives away other Labourers.

1667.  South, Serm., Ps. lxxxvii. 2. We read how the victorious Philistines were worsted by the captivated ark, which foraged their country more than a conquering army; they were not able to cohabit with that holy thing; it was like a plague in their bowels, and a curse in the midst of them; so that they were forced to restore their prey, and to turn their triumphs into supplications.

  2.  intr. To rove in search of forage or provisions; spec. of soldiers in the field.

1530.  in Palsgr., 553/2.

1531.  Elyot, The Boke Named the Gouernour, III. x. Oxen and bulls, whiche a lyttel before his men had taken in foraginge, and caused fagottes made of dry stickes to be fastned vnto theyr hornes, and sette on fyre.

1607.  Topsell, Serpents (1658), 610. When the Parents were gone abroad to forrage for them.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 280.

1702.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3828/2. The Left Wing of the Army foraged near the Villages.

1824.  W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 286. A detachment of the company travelled slowly on, foraging among the villages.

  b.  To make an inroad on, upon; to raid. Also transf. and fig.

1642.  Chas. I., Message to Both Houses, 11 July, in in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 601. He permitteth his Souldiers to issue out of the Town, and forage upon the Country.

1680.  Morden, Geog. Rect. (1685), 43. Under their King Cochliarius, foraging upon the Sea-coast of Gaul-Belgick.

1857.  H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Poets, II. xv. 208. He sallied forth upon a boyish enterprise of foraging upon the hazel-trees.

1886.  Lowell, Lett. (1894), II. 323. The consciousness that I had it to do would be so constantly foraging on my equanimity and therefore laying waste my time, that not a vine or a wheat-stalk would be left me.

  3.  To rove or hunt about as in search of supplies; to make a roving search for; to rummage.

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 122–3. Having learned to know when the coast is clear, we may sally out boldly to forage for new discoveries in the field of contemplation, without danger of an ambuscade.

1822.  W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, ii. 92. His taste for literary antiquities was first imbibed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford; where, when a student, he past many an hour foraging among the old manuscripts.

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 24. The accommodation for the beast is excellent; cool roomy stables, ample mangers, a never-failing supply of fodder and water, all ready, every comfort and luxury which the animal is capable of enjoying, is on the spot; as regards man, all is the reverse; he must forage abroad for anything he may want.

1876.  Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. xxxiii. He was hindered for several days by Sir Hugo, who, about to make an after-dinner speech on a burning topic, wanted Deronda to forage for him on the legal part of the question, beside wasting time every day on argument which always ended in a drawn battle.

1893.  A. T. Quiller-Couch, Delectable Duchy, 217. He foraged in the skirt pockets of his threadbare coat and brought out a paper of sandwiches and a long-nosed apple.

  † 4.  To glut oneself, as a wild beast; to raven. lit. and fig. Also, To batten or revel in.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 553.

1670.  L. Stucley, Gosp. Glass, xxxiv. 362. Have not we had a late instance of this our hard-heartedness, when the Plague ao forraged in London, and the parts adjacent?

1698.  Crowne, Caligula, v. 48.

  5.  trans. To supply with forage or food.

1552.  Huloet, Foraged to be … pabulor.

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 125. They are all burnt, bearing nothing but withered Benty-Grass, which burning afore the Rains, benefits the Ground much; and are now out of distrust the Moguls should Forrage their Army here.

1715–20.  Pope, Iliad, VIII. 627.

1810.  in Mem. Visc. Combermere, I. 139. We have been very well foraged since we have been here.

1880.  Disraeli, Endym., xiii. He foraged their pony, furnished their woodyard with logs and faggots, and supplied them from his dairy.

  6.  To obtain by foraging or rummaging. Also with out.

1656.  Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 74. This fowl [the raven], we know, is ravenous: all is too little, that he can forage for himself.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. ii. (1872), 12. Two-thousand stand of arms, as they count, are foraged in this way; and some four-hundred head of new Prisoners; and, on the whole, such a terror and damp is struck through the Aristocrat heart, as all but Patriotism, and even Patriotism were it out of this agony, might pity.

1849.  Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxvi. A great deal of his master’s information was supplied to that worthy man by his valet, who went out and foraged knowledge for him.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., II. i. 19. He has foraged out some raw cabbage and spiced it up with curry-powder, our only remaining pepper.

  Hence Foraged ppl. a.; Foraging ppl. a.

1624.  Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. iv. 54. As for revenge they surprised two of our forraging disorderly souldiers.

1649.  G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cclxvi.

a. 1848.  Whittier, Yorktown, v.

1863.  Bates, Nat. Amazon, II. v. 350–1. The accounts that have been published regarding carnivorous ants which hunt in vast armies, exciting terror wherever they go, apply only to the Ecitons, or foraging ants.

1873.  J. G. Holland, Arthur Bonnicastle, xix. 306. A foraging squirrel picked up his dinner almost at my feet, and ran up a tree, where he sat to eat it and scold me for my idleness.