Feast

views updated May 09 2018

257. Feast (See also Epicureanism.)

  1. Barmecide feast a sham banquet, with empty plates, given to a beggar by wealthy Bagdad nobleman. [Arab. Lit.: Arabian Nights, The Barmecides Feast]
  2. Belshazzars Feast lavish banquet, with vessels stolen from Jerusalem temple. [O.T.: Daniel, 5]
  3. Camachos wedding lavish feast prepared in vain, as Camachos fiancée runs off with her love just before the ceremony. [Span. Lit.: Cervantes Don Quixote ]
  4. Hanukkah (Feast of Lights or Feast of Dedication) Jewish festival lasting eight days; abundance of food is characteristic. [Judaism: NCE, 1190]
  5. Lucullan feast a lavish banquet; after Lucullus, roman general and gourmet. [Rom. Hist.: Espy, 236]
  6. Prosperos banquet shown to the hungry castaways, then disappears. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare The Tempest ]
  7. Thanksgiving national holiday with luxurious dinner as chief ritual. [Am. Pop. Culture: Misc.]
  8. Thyestean banquet at which Atreus served his brother Thyestes sons to him as main course. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 1081]
  9. Trimalchios Feast lavishly huge banquet given by wealthy vulgarian. [Rom. Lit.: Satyricon ]
  10. Zeus disguised as Amphitryon, gives a banquet at the latters house. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 32]

feast

views updated May 23 2018

feast / fēst/ • n. a large meal, typically one in celebration of something. ∎  a plentiful supply of something enjoyable, esp. for the mind or senses: the concert season offers a feast of classical music. ∎  an annual religious celebration: the feast of St. Joseph.• v. [intr.] eat and drink sumptuously. ∎  (feast on) eat large quantities of: feasting on barbecued chickenr.PHRASES: feast one's eyes on gaze at with pleasure.feast or famine either too much of something or too little.

Feast

views updated May 11 2018

Feast ★½ 2006 (R)

The third (and last) of Bravo's “Project Greenlight” series finds strangers hanging out in a dive desert bar when Hero (Dane) barges in with a shotgun and a thing's decapitated head. Hero quickly bites it but his wife, Heroine (Rawat), takes over and warns everyone that they are about to be attacked by carnivorous creatures and must work together to survive. Familiar horror story although fast-paced and mildly amusing. Also available unrated. 85m/C DVD, HD DVD . US Navi Rawat, Balthazar Getty, Henry Rollins, Krista Allen, Clu Gulager, Judah Friedlander, Duane Whitaker, Eric Dane, Jenny Wade; D: John Gulager; W: Marcus Dunstan, Patrick Melton; C: Thomas Callaway; M: Stephen (Steve) Edwards.

feast

views updated May 29 2018

feast feast day a day on which a celebration, especially an annual Christian one, is held.
feast of reason intellectual discussion, as complementary to genial conversation; the phrase comes originally from Pope's Satires of Horace (1733), ‘the feast of reason and the flow of soul’.

see also after the feast comes the reckoning, skeleton at the feast.

feast

views updated Jun 27 2018

feast religious festival; sumptuous meal or entertainment. XIII. — OF. feste (mod. fēte) :- L. festa n. pl. (taken as fem. sg. in Rom.) of festus festal, joyous, rel. to fēriæ (see FERIAL).
So vb. XIV.

Feast

views updated May 23 2018

Feast

the company at a feast, collectively.

Examples: feast of brewers; of quests, 1400.