Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1100-1200
Language: Old French
Origin: feste 'occasion of celebration', from Latin festum

feast

1 noun
     
NEW! See related topics: RELIGIONCHRONOLOGY
feast1 [countable]
1 a large meal where a lot of people celebrate a special occasion [↪ banquet]:
The king promised to hold a great feast for all his people.
2 a very good large meal:
all the ingredients for a spaghetti feast
midnight feast (=a meal eaten secretly at night by children)
3 an occasion when there are a lot of enjoyable things to see or do
feast for
Next week's film festival should be a real feast for cinema-goers.
The play is also a visual feast.
4RRTMC a day or period when there is a religious celebration:
the feast day of St. Francis
➔ movable feastWORD FOCUS: meal WORD FOCUS: meal
meals at different times of day: breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea British English, dinner, supper
a meal outside: picnic, barbecue also barbie informal, cookout American English
when you quickly eat a little food : snack, a bite to eat
a very big meal for a lot of people: banquet, feast
parts of a meal: starter British English, appetizer American English (the first course)
main course/entree especially AmE, side dish (eaten with the main course)
dessert also pudding sweet British English (sweet food eaten at the end of the meal)

➔ See also meal
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
 
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