feed

Meaning

Verb

1. (transitive) To give (someone or something) food to eat.
2. (intransitive) To eat (usually of animals).
3. (ditransitive) To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.
4. (transitive) To give to a machine to be processed.
5. (transitive) To supply (a machine) with something to be processed.
6. (figuratively, transitive) To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).
7. (transitive) To supply with something.
8. (transitive) To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
9. (transitive) To pass to.
10. (transitive) To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule).
11. (transitive) To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).

Noun

1. (uncountable) Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals.
2. (countable, uncountable) Something supplied continuously.
3. (countable, uncountable) The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.
4. (countable, uncountable) The forward motion of the material fed into a machine.
5. (Australia, New-Zealand, UK, colloquial, countable) A meal.
6. (countable) A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities.
7. (Internet, countable, uncountable) online content presented sequentially:
8. (Internet, countable, often, uncountable) online content presented sequentially:
9. (countable, uncountable) A straight man who delivers lines to the comedian during a performance.

fee

• Noun
• Verb

Read more

Synonyms

nourish

eat

🍽️

fodder

support

forage

nurture

graze

raise

fatten

provender

supply

food

🍽️

feeding

provide for

look after

maintain

fertilize

bring up

pasture

serve

input

keep

flow

sustain

run

course

nurse

give food

provide with food

feed in

foster

care for

fertilise

devour

rear

prey

feast

consume

grub

victual

give

stuff

dine

deliver

provision

sate

pabulum

fare

cherish

board

Translations

nourrir

nutrire

alimentar

alimenter

füttern

alimentare

🍽️

alimentar

alimentar

voeden

ernähren

nutrir

voeren

dar de comer

Futter

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfiːd/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: feden

Inherited from Old English: fēdan

Cognate with Western Frisian: fiede

Cognate with Dutch: voeden

Cognate with Danish: føde

Cognate with Swedish: föda

Cognate with Icelandic: fæða

Cognate with Latin: pāscō

Inherited from Middle English: fede

In summary

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.