Overpasture

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To put too many animals on a field or range so that they feed beyond what the land can sustain ; to let grazing wear down pasture by allowing it to be eaten too heavily
2. Grazing animals on a meadow or range in numbers greater than its capacity ; allowing livestock to strip grassland so that it becomes degraded and exhausted
3. To stock a pasture with more herd animals than it can support ; to graze a stretch of grassland so intensively that its vegetation is damaged

Etymology: "Overpasture" is a compound of "over-" and "pasture," and it is a plain formation rather than a word with a dramatic backstory. "Over-" in this sense means "too much" or "excessively," as in "overwork" or "overeat," and it has been productive in English since Old English times. "Pasture" comes into English from Old French "pasture," which descends from Latin "pastura," meaning the act of feeding or grazing, and it is ultimately related to "pascere," "to feed." The combination is transparent: to overpasture land is to let livestock graze it beyond what the grass can sustain, so the soil and vegetation are damaged. Its meaning follows directly from its parts, with no sharp shift in sense along the way.

Synonyms: overgraze