Word
fest
US/ˈfɛst/
UK/fˈɛst/
Definitions
01a festival or gathering
n. a large event or celebration focused on one thing, like music or food.
n. a festival or large-scale gathering centered around a specific theme or interest; almost exclusively used as a suffix in compounds.
“The city is hosting a huge jazz fest in the park this weekend.”
“The local arts council organized a weekend-long film fest to showcase the works of emerging directors from the region.”
Informal
Usage
Usually attached to the end of a noun with or without a hyphen, such as 'film-fest' or 'foodfest'.
Synonyms
02a lot of one thing
n. a situation where there is a lot of one specific activity, often something annoying or silly.
n. a situation or event characterized by an excessive amount of a particular quality or activity; typically used as a suffix.
“That long meeting was a total snooze-fest and I almost fell asleep.”
“The romantic comedy turned into a complete sob-fest by the final act, leaving the entire audience in tears.”
Informal · Humorous
Usage
Commonly used to create humorous or critical nouns like 'snooze-fest' for something boring or 'sob-fest' for a sad movie.
Teaching tip
This sense is often used to complain about something being 'too much' of a certain thing; learners should use it in casual conversation rather than formal writing.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Fest (“feast, festival, party”), from Middle High German fëst, from Latin festum, from which last are also English feast, festival, festivity (see these).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/fest