feed Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun food for domestic livestock
provender.
verb provide as food
- Feed the guests the nuts
verb give food to
give.
- Feed the starving children in India
- don't give the child this tough meat
verb feed into; supply
- Her success feeds her vanity
verb introduce continuously
feed in.
- feed carrots into a food processor
verb support or promote
- His admiration fed her vanity
verb take in food; used of animals only
eat.
- This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat
- What do whales eat?
verb serve as food for; be the food for
- This dish feeds six
verb move along, of liquids
flow; run; course.
- Water flowed into the cave
- the Missouri feeds into the Mississippi
verb profit from in an exploitatory manner
prey.
- He feeds on her insecurity
verb gratify
feast.
- feed one's eyes on a gorgeous view
verb provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to
fertilize; fertilise.
- We should fertilize soil if we want to grow healthy plants
verb give a tip or gratuity to in return for a service, beyond the compensation agreed on
fee; tip; bung.
- Remember to tip the waiter
- fee the steward

AS. fdan, fr. fda food; akin to C?. fdian, OFries fda, fda, D. voeden, OHG. fuottan, Icel. fæa, Sw. föda, Dan. föde. 75. See Food.

imperfect & past participle Fed ; present participle & verbal noun Feeding

To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of.
If thine enemy hunger, feed him. Rom. xii. 20.

Unreasonable reatures feed their young. Shak.
To satisfy; grafity or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire.
I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. Shak.

Feeding him with the hope of liberty. Knolles.
To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal.
To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard.
Thou shalt feed people Israel. 2 Sam. v. 2.

Mightiest powers by deepest calms are feed. B. Cornwall.
To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle; as, if grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.
Once in three years feed your mowing lands. Mortimer.
To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to a steam boiler.
(Mach.) (a) To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing press. (b) To produce progressive operation upon or with (as in wood and metal working machines, so that the work moves to the cutting tool, or the tool to the work).

To take food; to eat.
Her kid . . . which I afterwards killed because it would not feed. De Foe.
To subject by eating; to satisfy the appetite; to feed one's self (upon something); to prey; -- with on or upon.
Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. Shak.
To be nourished, strengthened, or satisfied, as if by food. "He feeds upon the cooling shade." Spenser.
To place cattle to feed; to pasture; to graze.
If a man . . . shall put in his beast, and shall feed in anothe man's field. Ex. xxii. 5.

That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep.
A grazing or pasture ground. Shak.
An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.
A meal, or the act of eating. R.
For such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found. Milton.
The water supplied to steam boilers.
(Mach.) (a) The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work. (b) The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones. (c) The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion.