Fasting, abstinence from food — the Aramaic word for going without nourishment. Used in Daniel's account of the king's distressed night after Daniel was thrown into the lions' den. Fasting in Scripture is a physical expression of spiritual desperation.
When Darius spent the night in fasting (Dan 6:18), the pagan king unknowingly practiced a spiritual discipline. His fasting expressed what words could not: desperate hope that Daniel's God was real and powerful enough to save. This is one of Scripture's most moving pictures of a seeker — a man who doesn't yet know God but instinctively turns to self-denial in crisis. God honored that fasting by delivering Daniel, and Darius responded with the decree that all should 'tremble before the God of Daniel' (Dan 6:26).