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paître

to graze, to pasture (animals)

verb PEH-tr Rare
Animals & Nature Farm Animals

Origin: Latin pascere (to feed, graze), evolved through Old French paistre

Usage Note

Paître is an irregular verb used mainly for livestock eating grass in a field; it rarely appears outside rural, literary, or idiomatic contexts. The colloquial phrase envoyer paître quelqu'un means to send someone packing or tell them to get lost. Note that the circumflex accent on the î before a t is required by traditional orthography.

Examples

"Les vaches paissent dans le pré toute la journée."

Natural Translation

The cows graze in the meadow all day.

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