feed

Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals.

Noun

  1. Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals.
    • They sell feed, riding helmets, and everything else for horses.

    Hypernyms: food

    Coordinate Terms: fodder

  2. Something supplied continuously.
    • a satellite feed
  3. The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.
    • the paper feed of a printer

    Coordinate Terms: feeder feedbin hopper

  4. The forward motion of the material fed into a machine.

    Coordinate Terms: speed speeds and feeds

  5. A meal.
    • 184?, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor One proposed going to Hungerford-market to do a feed on decayed shrimps or other offal laying about the market; another proposed going to Covent-garden to do a...
    • "There won't be any more blessed concerts for a million years or so; there won't be any Royal Academy of Arts, and no nice little feeds at restaurants." - 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William...
    • ‘Still hungry! Well, we’ll see if Larry can find you a feed of beef when the billy’s boiled.’ - 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 111:
  6. A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities.
    • They held a crab feed on the beach.

    Synonyms: feast

  7. online content presented sequentially:
    • I've subscribed to the feeds of my favourite blogs, so I can find out when new posts are added without having to visit those sites.

    1. (syndication or aggregation): antichronological sequence of posts or articles from a single source, especially as consumable on a platform other as originally published.

    2. (social media, often after a possessive determiner) content intended for consumption by scrolling or swiping, especially as a home page and from multiple publishers followed or algorithmically curated

      • Refresh the top of your various “feeds” — the running column of content on some versions of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — and you will see the latest news at the top. The further back you scroll, the older the...
      • I use Native, that’s what other Native people on Facebook use. I have 660 friends. Tons of Native friends in my feed. Most of my friends, though, are people I don’t know, who’d happily friended me upon request. - 2018,...
      • Despite spending years studying these toxic dynamics and the better part of a month watching them up close in strangers’ feeds, I was still, like so many, surprised to see it all reflected at the ballot box. We...
  8. A straight man who delivers lines to the comedian during a performance.
    • Don Ward is often described as a former comic, having some experience in this area as a young man, acting as a feed for the comic actor David Lodge at Parkins Holiday Camp in Jersey […] - 2020, Oliver Double,...

Origin

From Middle English fede, fed, from the verb (see above). Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse fœða (“nourishment, food”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), whence also Old English fēdan (“to feed”).

Forms

feeds

Derived

atom feed data feed Internet feed live Internet feed RSS feed syndication feed web feed animal feed aquafeed birdfeed chicken feed clean feed crossfeed dirty feed dream feed drip-feed feedback feedbag feedbox feed bunk feed dog feed drive feedforward feedgrain

Verb Entry 2

  1. To give (someone or something) food to eat.
    • Feed the dog every evening.
    • If thine enemy hunger, feed him. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:20:
  2. To eat (usually of animals).
    • Spiders feed on gnats and flies.
    • “The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what straits his majesty’s revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable; that the secretary’s expedient of putting out...
    • But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old...
  3. To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.
    • Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.
    • Feed the fish to the dolphins.
    • DR SIMEON: I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to. - 2012 December 25 (airdate), Steven Moffat, The Snowmen (Doctor Who)
  4. To give to a machine to be processed.
    • Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.
  5. To supply (a machine) with something to be processed.
    • We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.
  6. To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).
    • If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
    • feeding him with the hope of liberty - 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
  7. To supply with something.
    • Springs feed ponds with water.
    • The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed - 1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III,...
  8. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
    • If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.
    • Once in three years, or every other year, feed your mowing-lands. - 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry]...
  9. To pass to.
    • Morrison then played a pivotal role in West Brom's equaliser, powering through the middle and feeding Tchoyi, whose low, teasing right-wing cross was poked in by Thomas at the far post - 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin,...
  10. To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule).
    • Nasalization feeds raising.
  11. To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).
    • This orthodox analysis […] leads to the conclusion that […] Subject–Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) is fed by the contraction operation. - 1983, Arnold M. Zwicky, Geoffrey K. Pullum, “Cliticization vs. Inflection: English...

Origin

From Middle English feden, from Old English fēdan (“to feed”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with West Frisian fiede (“to nourish, feed”), Dutch voeden (“to feed”), Danish føde (“to bring forth, feed”), Swedish föda (“to bring forth, feed”), Icelandic fæða (“to feed”), and more distantly with Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb) through Indo-European. More at food, fodder.

Forms

feeds feeding fed

Synonyms

nourish

Derived

a closed mouth doesn't get fed bacon-fed bite the hand that feeds one boobfeed bottle-fed bottle-feed breast-fed breastfeed cofeed co-feed cornfed counterfeed don't feed the troll drip-feed fed cattle feedable feed a cold, starve a fever feed and water feed back feedboard feedee feeder feedfest feedforward

Verb form of, participle

  1. simple past and past participle of fee

Origin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.