grazing
放牧
解説 Definition
「grazing」は、牛や羊などの家畜が草原や牧草地で草を食べながら過ごすことを表す名詞です。また、農業・牧畜業において家畜を放牧する行為全般を指します。転じて、人が食事を少しずつつまみ食いする行動を指すこともあります。
Grazing is the activity of livestock or wild animals feeding on grass and other low-growing plants, or the agricultural practice of allowing animals to feed on pasture. Informally, it can also mean eating small amounts of food repeatedly.
覚え方のコツ Memory Tip
原形 graze「草を食む」に -ing が付いた動名詞・名詞で、家畜が牧草を食べる行為や、そのための放牧を表します。cattle grazing、grazing land、sustainable grazing をまとまりで覚えましょう。overgrazing は over-「過度に」が加わった「過放牧」。graze には「表面をかすめる」別義もあるので文脈に注意します。
Start with the base verb graze, “to feed on growing grass,” and add -ing to name the activity. Picture cattle or sheep moving slowly across pasture and eating as they go. Useful combinations are cattle grazing, grazing land, grazing rights, and sustainable grazing. The prefixed form overgrazing means that animals consume vegetation too heavily for the land to recover. Grazing can also describe a person eating small portions throughout the day, using the same image of repeated small bites. Keep this sense separate from another verb graze, meaning to scrape or touch a surface lightly.
例文
The cattle were grazing peacefully in the open field.
牛たちは広い野原で穏やかに草を食んでいました。
Overgrazing can lead to soil erosion and land degradation.
過放牧は土壌の浸食と土地の劣化を引き起こす可能性があります。
The farmer rotates his fields to allow sustainable grazing.
その農家は持続可能な放牧のために牧草地をローテーションしています。
grazing の類義語・関連語
類義語
紛らわしい語
grazing の語源・成り立ち Etymology
古英語 grasian（草を食む）から派生し、grass（草）と同根。ゲルマン祖語 *grasą（草）に遡る。家畜が草地で草を食べる行為そのものを指し、転じて「放牧地」の意味も持つ。関連語：grass, graze。
Grazing is the verbal noun formed from graze plus -ing. In its feeding sense, graze comes from Old English grasian, “to feed on grass,” and is closely related to grass. Both belong to the Germanic vocabulary associated with growing herbage. The agricultural noun developed directly from the action of animals feeding in fields or pasture. Its informal human sense, eating small amounts repeatedly, is a later metaphor based on the feeding behavior of grazing animals.
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