Forage means to look for food. Animals or people can do it. They search in fields, forests, or other places.
The birds forage for seeds every morning.
Soldiers forage for food during long trips.
Forage as a noun means food for animals. It is usually grass or plants animals eat on farms or in nature.
The cows eat fresh forage on the farm.
Farmers buy forage for their animals in winter.
Forage as a noun can also mean the activity of looking for wild food or materials. People or animals collect what they find.
Forage is important for survival in the wild.
They went on a forage to find edible plants.
Forage can mean to search for something other than food, like information or supplies. It means to look carefully in many places.
The team foraged through old files for answers.
She foraged in books for useful ideas.
This rare meaning refers to an animal, like a horse, searching for small bits of food near another moving animal or cart. It means picking leftovers while moving.
The pony foraged behind the cart for dropped hay.
Horses forage while following each other in a field.