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Pasture vs Hay - What's the difference?

pasture | hay |

In obsolete terms the difference between pasture and hay

is that pasture is food, nourishment while hay is a circular country dance.

As nouns the difference between pasture and hay

is that pasture is land on which cattle can be kept for feeding while hay is grass cut and dried for use as animal fodder.

As verbs the difference between pasture and hay

is that pasture is to move animals into a pasture to graze while hay is to cut grasses or herb plants for use as animal fodder.

pasture

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Land on which cattle can be kept for feeding.
  • Ground covered with grass or herbage, used or suitable for the grazing of livestock.
  • * Bible, Psalms xxiii. 2
    • He maketh me to lie down in green pastures .
  • * Shakespeare
    • So graze as you find pasture .
  • (obsolete) Food, nourishment.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.x:
    • Ne euer is he wont on ought to feed, / But toades and frogs, his pasture poysonous [...].

    Derived terms

    * pasture rose * pasture thistle

    Verb

  • To move animals into a to graze.
  • To graze.
  • To feed, especially on growing grass; to supply grass as food for.
    • The farmer pastures''' fifty oxen; the land will '''pasture forty cows.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    hay

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) (m), from (etyl) . More at (l).

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Grass cut and dried for use as animal fodder.
  • * Camden
    • Make hay while the sun shines.
  • * C. L. Flint
    • Hay may be dried too much as well as too little.
  • (countable) Any mix of green leafy plants used for fodder.
  • (slang) Cannabis; marijuana.
  • * 1947 , William Burroughs, letter, 19 Feb 1947:
    • I would like some of that hay . Enclose $20.
  • A net set around the haunt of an animal, especially a rabbit.
    • (Rowe)
  • (obsolete) A hedge.
  • (obsolete) A circular country dance.
    • to dance the hay
    Derived terms
    * hay fever * hayloft, hay loft * haystack * hayward * hit the hay * make hay while the sun shines
    External links
    * (wikipedia)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cut grasses or herb plants for use as animal fodder.
  • To lay snares for rabbits.
    • (Huloet)

    Related terms

    * bale * straw

    References

    Webster's Online Dictionary article on hay

    Etymology 2

    : From the sound it represents, by analogy with other letters such as kay'' and ''gay''. The expected form in English if the ''h'' had survived in the Latin name of the letter "h", ''h? .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The name of the letter for the h sound in Pitman shorthand.
    • Related terms
    * aitch, the name of the Latin letter for this sound

    Anagrams

    * * * ----