foraging

«foraging» in Mova's school dictionary: searching for food, especially wild food, like animals… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (-ing form of forage: forage, forages, foraged, foraging); noun (foraging, uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Foraging means searching for food, especially wild food, like animals looking for something to eat. tree →

2) Foraging is the hobby of collecting wild food like berries, nuts, mushrooms and herbs. tree →

3) (informal) Foraging means searching around for something: «foraging in the cupboard for biscuits». tree →

sense in the lessons

In science lessons it describes animal behaviour: bees foraging for nectar, squirrels foraging for nuts, ants foraging for food. In everyday life people go foraging for blackberries. Safety lessons warn never to eat wild plants or mushrooms unless an expert adult says they are safe. Phrases: «foraging for food», «go foraging».

examples

• Bees spend the day foraging for nectar. tree →
• The bears were foraging for berries. tree →
• We went foraging for blackberries in the lane. tree →
• Never eat a mushroom you found foraging without asking an expert. tree →
• My brother was foraging in the fridge for a snack. tree →
• Ants leave trails while foraging. tree →
• Deer were foraging at the edge of the woods. tree →
• Then the cat went out foraging for wheat, so that the cock might have something to eat. tree →

note

Verb form of forage; spelled with one r and one g before -ing (the e is dropped: forage → foraging). Noun: forager. Foraging can be dangerous: some wild mushrooms and berries are deadly poisonous. In many places it is not allowed to pick plants in nature reserves.

In the corpora

• Scattering food in the grass makes gorillas walk and search, which is called foraging, and keeps them busy for longer.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «foraging» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.