fasting

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Abstinence or self-denial undertaken for religious reasons, especially refraining from food.

   Like setting the dinner table aside so the mind can turn fully toward worship.

   The monks observe strict fasting throughout Lent.

   For many believers, fasting accompanies prayer as a path to spiritual focus.

   Similarabstinence, abstention, self-denial

   Oppositefeasting, indulgence

   Note

   The word works as a mass noun for the practice, as in strict fasting, and as a plural for repeated acts of self-denial. Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Francesca Carrara (1834) sets fastings beside long vigils and sleepless prayers, the vocabulary of devotion. H. G. Wells turns the word around in The Food of the Gods (1904): Lady Wondershoot's fastings are inflicted on others, and a pious word becomes a punishment.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The practice of doing without food, or cutting back on calories, for a period of time in order to lose weight or for medical or health reasons.

   Intermittent fasting has become a popular approach to weight management.

   Patients are required to complete a period of fasting before the surgery.

   Similardieting, abstinence

   Oppositefeeding, eating

   Note

   Medicine treats this kind of fasting as something prescribed for a patient. The United States Navy Medical News Letter of 1967 describes an obese patient "undergoing fasting for weight reduction", and the verb undergo files it alongside surgery and therapy. The word itself does not separate it from the religious practice. Purpose does, so phrases such as before surgery or for weight loss tell the reader which is meant.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of fast.

   He has been fasting since dawn for spiritual reasons.

   The patients are fasting before their morning procedures.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty: it is a participle in he has been fasting and a gerund in fasting is hard. It belongs only to the verb of abstaining, never to the adjective fast meaning firm or fixed. The verb can also be transitive, so a farmer may be fasting the animals, making them go without food rather than going without himself.

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