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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Fast \Fast\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Fasted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Fasting}.] [AS. f[ae]stan; akin to D. vasten, OHG. fast[=e]n, G. fasten, Icel. & Sw. fasta, Dan. faste, Goth. fastan to keep, observe, fast, and prob. to E. fast firm.]
1. To abstain from food; to omit to take nourishment in whole or in part; to go hungry.
Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked. --Milton.
2. To practice abstinence as a religious exercise or duty; to abstain from food voluntarily for a time, for the mortification of the body or appetites, or as a token of grief, or humiliation and penitence.
Thou didst fast and weep for the child. --2 Sam. xii. 21.
{Fasting day}, a fast day; a day of fasting.
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