̈ɪɡreɪz intransitive verb (Lifestyle
and Leisure) (People and Society) To
perform an
action in a
casual or
perfunctory manner; to
sample or
browse.
More specifically,
either to
eat snacks or
small meals
throughout the day in
preference to full meals at
regular times;
also, to
consume unpurchased foodstuffs
while shopping (or working) in a
supermarket, or to
flick rapidly
between television channels, to
zap.
Etymology:
These are transferred and
figurative uses of the verb graze 'to feed',
which is
normally only used of
cattle or
other animals.
History and
Usage:
Although there are
much earlier
isolated examples of graze used
with reference to
people (for
example, Shakespeare's Juliet is
told to 'graze
where thou wilt'), the
new senses defined
here first appeared in the US in the
early eighties, and
focus on the metaphorical similarities of
behaviour between
human grazers and
their animal counterparts.
Whereas snacking
has been current since the
late fifties, the
term grazing became most popular in the America of the mid eighties, where it seemed to
have become part of the
mythology both of the
yuppie and of the couch
potato: the former
too busy to eat
proper meals, the
latter too preoccupied with the 'tube' to
prepare them at
home. The
phenomenon of supermarket shoppers (and staff)
eating produce straight from the
shelves could in part be attributed to larger stores (which are harder to supervise) and
consequently longer shopping excursions, but it seems more
likely that the
problem existed earlier, only becoming a
trend when given a
name. Technically
theft, grazing became
for some the
acceptable (and ingenious)
face of shoplifting,
perhaps because of
its euphemistic name and the
fact that the goods are consumed on the premises
rather than being taken
away. Only in the late eighties
did television become a
successful grazing ground.
Two factors
were particularly significant: the
growth of
cable television in the
US, with the proliferation of channels to graze
among, and the popularity of
remote control devices (or zappers: see zap). The grazer,
feeling hunger pangs, drives to the
Chinese restaurant and orders a
couple of
dozen jiaozi...This is consumed in the
car, using chopsticks
kept permanently in the
glove compartment.
Observer Magazine 19
May 1985, p. 45 Yuppies do
not eat.
They socialize, they
network, they graze or troll. New
York 17
June 1985, p. 43 It's thousands of bits from TV shows
within one TV show--a grazer's
paradise.
USA Today 27 Feb. 1989,
section D, p. 3 Brian
Finn wandered from
room to room, grazing on sandwiches and answering questions. Bryan Burrough &
John Helyar Barbarians at the Gate (1990), p. 448