graze.html - intransitive verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society) To perform an action in a casual or perfunctory manner; to sample or browse. More specifically, either to eat snacks or small meals throughout the day in preference to full meals at regular times; also, to consume unpurchased foodstuffs while shopping (or working) in a supermarket, or to flick rapidly between television channels, to zap. Etymology: These are transferred and figurative uses of the verb graze 'to feed', which is normally only used of cattle or other animals. History and Usage: Although there are much earlier isolated examples of graze used with reference to people (for example, Shakespeare's Juliet is told to 'graze where thou wilt'), the new senses defined here first appeared in the US in the early eighties, and focus on the metaphorical similarities of behaviour between human grazers and their animal counterparts. Whereas snacking has been current since the late fifties, the term grazing became most popular in the America of the mid eighties, where it seemed to have become part of the mythology both of the yuppie and of the couch potato: the former too busy to eat proper meals, the latter too preoccupied with the 'tube' to prepare them at home. The phenomenon of supermarket shoppers (and staff) eating produce straight from the shelves could in part be attributed to larger stores (which are harder to supervise) and consequently longer shopping excursions, but it seems more likely that the problem existed earlier, only becoming a trend when given a name. Technically theft, grazing became for some the acceptable (and ingenious) face of shoplifting, perhaps because of its euphemistic name and the fact that the goods are consumed on the premises rather than being taken away . Only in the late eighties did television become a successful grazing ground. Two factors were particularly significant: the growth of cable television in the US, with the proliferation of channels to graze among, and the popularity of remote control devices (or zappers: see zap ). The grazer, feeling hunger pangs, drives to the Chinese restaurant and orders a couple of dozen jiaozi...This is consumed in the car, using chopsticks kept permanently in the glove compartment. Observer Magazine 19 May 1985, p.
45 Yuppies do not eat. They socialize, they network, they graze or troll. New York 17 June 1985, p.
43 It's thousands of bits from TV shows within one TV show--a grazer's paradise. USA Today 27 Feb. 1989, section D, p.
3 Brian Finn wandered from room to room, grazing on sandwiches and answering questions. Bryan Burrough & John Helyar Barbarians at the Gate (1990), p. 448

graze.html - v.
1 intr. (of cattle, sheep, etc.) eat growing grass.
2 tr. a feed (cattle etc.) on growing grass. b feed on (grass).
3 intr. pasture cattle.

grazer n. [OE grasian f. grós GRASS]

graze.html - v. & n.
--v.

1 tr. rub or scrape (a part of the body, esp. the skin) so as to break the surface without causing bleeding.
2 a tr. touch lightly in passing. b intr. (foll. by against, along, etc.) move with a light passing contact.

--n.

an act or instance of grazing. [perh. a specific use of GRAZE(1), as if 'take off the grass close to the ground' (of a shot etc.)]

graze.html - intransitive verb (Lifestyle and Leisure) (People and Society) To perform an action in a casual or perfunctory manner; to sample or browse. More specifically, either to eat snacks or small meals throughout the day in preference to full meals at regular times; also, to consume unpurchased foodstuffs while shopping (or working) in a supermarket, or to flick rapidly between television channels, to zap. Etymology: These are transferred and figurative uses of the verb graze 'to feed', which is normally only used of cattle or other animals. History and Usage: Although there are much earlier isolated examples of graze used with reference to people (for example, Shakespeare's Juliet is told to 'graze where thou wilt'), the new senses defined here first appeared in the US in the early eighties, and focus on the metaphorical similarities of behaviour between human grazers and their animal counterparts. Whereas snacking has been current since the late fifties, the term grazing became most popular in the America of the mid eighties, where it seemed to have become part of the mythology both of the yuppie and of the couch potato: the former too busy to eat proper meals, the latter too preoccupied with the 'tube' to prepare them at home. The phenomenon of supermarket shoppers (and staff) eating produce straight from the shelves could in part be attributed to larger stores (which are harder to supervise) and consequently longer shopping excursions, but it seems more likely that the problem existed earlier, only becoming a trend when given a name. Technically theft, grazing became for some the acceptable (and ingenious) face of shoplifting, perhaps because of its euphemistic name and the fact that the goods are consumed on the premises rather than being taken away . Only in the late eighties did television become a successful grazing ground. Two factors were particularly significant: the growth of cable television in the US, with the proliferation of channels to graze among, and the popularity of remote control devices (or zappers: see zap ). The grazer, feeling hunger pangs, drives to the Chinese restaurant and orders a couple of dozen jiaozi...This is consumed in the car, using chopsticks kept permanently in the glove compartment. Observer Magazine 19 May 1985, p.
45 Yuppies do not eat. They socialize, they network, they graze or troll. New York 17 June 1985, p.
43 It's thousands of bits from TV shows within one TV show--a grazer's paradise. USA Today 27 Feb. 1989, section D, p.
3 Brian Finn wandered from room to room, grazing on sandwiches and answering questions. Bryan Burrough & John Helyar Barbarians at the Gate (1990), p. 448

graze.html - v.
1 intr. (of cattle, sheep, etc.) eat growing grass.
2 tr. a feed (cattle etc.) on growing grass. b feed on (grass).
3 intr. pasture cattle.

grazer n. [OE grasian f. grós GRASS]

graze.html - v. & n.
--v.

1 tr. rub or scrape (a part of the body, esp. the skin) so as to break the surface without causing bleeding.
2 a tr. touch lightly in passing. b intr. (foll. by against, along, etc.) move with a light passing contact.

--n.

an act or instance of grazing. [perh. a specific use of GRAZE(1), as if 'take off the grass close to the ground' (of a shot etc.)]