repast

English

Etymology

Old French repast, from the verb repaistre, from Latin repascere.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /rɪˈpaːst/
• (US, Northern England) IPA^(key): /rɪˈpæːst/

Noun

repast (countable and uncountable, plural repasts)

1. (countable) A meal.
   • Milton

     From dance to sweet repast they turn.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     When at last they were thoroughly toasted, the Badger summoned them to the table, where he had been busy laying a repast.

   • 2010, Pseudonymous Bosch, This Isn't What It Looks Like

     "'Tis true, tonight I ate my last of the royal repast."

2. (uncountable) The food eaten at a meal.
   • Shakespeare

     Go and get me some repast.

Verb

repast (third-person singular simple present repasts, present participle repasting, simple past and past participle repasted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To supply food to; to feast.
   • Shakespeare

     Repast them with my blood.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To take food.
   • Milton

     He then, also, as before, left arbitrary the dieting and repasting of our minds.

Anagrams

• paster, paters, prates, tapers, trapes

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Old French

Noun

repast m (oblique plural repaz or repatz, nominative singular repaz or repatz, nominative plural repast)

1. a meal
   • circa 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou:

     Mez li Dus ne vout prendre ne disner ne repast.

     But the Duke didn't want to eat dinner or any other meal.

Descendants

• English: repast (borrowed)
• French: repas