In language (fast) as a verb means
- abstain from – be deprived of – It is not only restricted to
prohibit the self from eating and drinking as a norm of worship
as when we do during the Ramadhan month. The word "fast" can also
be extended in scope to mean: stop talking-or keeping silent as
in: to be fasting from – speaking with anybody for a certain
period of time and as in: He abandoned "approaching his wife"
during the fasting time – which is also regarded - within the
legal fasting limit."
As for jurisprudents' idiom and
according to what the – supreme religious authority, the late
Ayatollah Abul- Qasim Al-Khu'ee-one of the prominent "Hauzah of
Najaf" academy says: Fasting is to abandon having or doing
anything which may break the fast for the sake of getting nearer
to Allah".