What does grazed mean?
Grazed is the past tense and past participle of graze. Its best-known use is in the sense of touching or passing so close that something is lightly scraped: a bullet may graze a person, or a car may graze a barrier. In livestock and land-management contexts, it means fed on grass or cropped grass, as when cattle graze a pasture. Grazed can also appear before a noun, such as grazed land, indicating that an area has been used for grazing. The word is neutral and common in British and American English, ranging from ordinary descriptions of animals and vegetation to reports of accidents and near misses. Because it preserves the vivid idea of moving along a surface, it is especially useful when the contact is slight rather than a full strike. As an inflected form, grazed is usually understood through the related senses of graze.
Touched, scraped, or passed so close as to make light contact; fed on grass or cropped grass while feeding.
"The vehicle grazed the barrier and continued along the road."
The relevant sense depends on context: livestock graze grass, while a projectile or vehicle grazes a person or object.
Having been affected by grazing, especially land from which livestock have eaten the grass; also bearing a light scrape or abrasion.
"The grazed hillside showed patches where the grass had been eaten away."
This is a participial use and is most common in phrases such as grazed land or grazed skin.
A bullet can graze a target, while cattle graze grass: one word carries both a near-miss and the everyday image of feeding in a field.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does grazed come from?
Grazed comes from graze, which descends from Old English grasian, meaning “to feed on grass,” and is related to Old English gras, “grass.” Grass and grassy belong to the same etymological family, while grazier continued the agricultural sense of graze. The sense of touching or passing lightly developed later and is now common in descriptions of near misses.
Related word forms
How grazed is actually used
Grazed is normally an inflected form rather than an independent lexical headword. In descriptions of accidents, sports, or near misses, it implies light contact and may suggest little or no damage; in agricultural contexts, it describes the feeding or cropping of grass. There is no significant British–American difference.
Easily confused with grazed
Grazed means lightly touched or scraped, whereas greased means coated or lubricated with grease.