feed — English Dictionary

feed
Word-form referencesfee
Pronunciations (2)
  • /fiːd/
  • [fɪjd]

Verb

  1. To give (someone or something) food to eat.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Feed the dog every evening.

    If thine enemy hunger, feed him.

  2. To eat (usually of animals).

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples

    Spiders feed on gnats and flies.

    More examples (2)

    “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 your eyes, was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat;[...]

    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 mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge,[…].

    If we have time we might go on to Brighton, feed at the 'Ship,' and come back in the cool.

    More examples (1)

    While feeding, the basking shark swims at about two knots per hour, and this enables it to eat and breathe in the same motion.

  3. To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.

    Usage
    • Ditransitive
    Examples

    Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.

    Feed the fish to the dolphins.

    More examples (2)

    DR SIMEON: I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to.

    A young female farm worker was fed alive to a herd of pigs after allegedly being brutally raped and beaten by a colleague with a grudge against her father.

  4. To give to a machine to be processed.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.

  5. To supply (a machine) with something to be processed.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.

  6. To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).

    Usage
    • Figurative
    • Transitive
    Examples

    If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

    feeding him with the hope of liberty

  7. To supply with something.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Springs feed ponds with water.

    The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed

  8. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.

    Once in three years, or every other year, feed your mowing-lands.

  9. To pass to.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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

  10. To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule).

    Usage
    • Transitive
    • of a phonological rule
    Examples

    Nasalization feeds raising.

  11. To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).

    Usage
    • Transitive
    • of a syntactic rule

Noun

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

    Usage
    • Uncountable
    Broader terms
    Examples

    They sell feed, riding helmets, and everything else for horses.

  2. Something supplied continuously.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    a satellite feed

  3. The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    the paper feed of a printer

  4. The part of a fountain pen that supplies ink to the nib.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  5. The forward motion of the material fed into a machine.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
  6. A meal.

    Usage
    • Australia
    • New-Zealand
    • UK usage
    • Colloquial
    • Countable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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 'tightener' of rotten oranges, to which I was humorously invited; […]

    "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."

    ‘Still hungry! Well, we’ll see if Larry can find you a feed of beef when the billy’s boiled.’

  7. A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities.

    Usage
    • Countable
    Synonyms
    Examples

    They held a crab feed on the beach.

  8. online content presented sequentially: antichronological sequence of posts or articles from a single source, especially as consumable on a platform other as originally published.

    Usage
    • Internet
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples

    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.

  9. online content presented sequentially: content intended for consumption by scrolling or swiping, especially as a home page and from multiple publishers followed or algorithmically curated

    Usage
    • Internet
    • Countable
    • often
    • Uncountable
    • after a possessive determiner
    Examples
    More examples (3)

    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 material gets.

    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.

    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 shouldn’t have been surprised; our divisions have been in front of our faces and inside our feeds this whole time.

  10. A straight man who delivers lines to the comedian during a performance.

    Usage
    • Countable
    • Uncountable
    Examples
    More examples (1)

    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 […]

Noun

  1. food for domestic livestock

    Synonyms
    Broader terms

Verb

  1. provide as food

    Examples

    Feed the guests the nuts

  2. give food to

    Synonyms
    Antonyms
    Examples

    Feed the starving children in India

    don't give the child this tough meat

  3. feed into; supply

    Examples

    Her success feeds her vanity

  4. introduce continuously

    Synonyms
    Examples

    feed carrots into a food processor

  5. support or promote

    Examples

    His admiration fed her vanity

  6. take in food; used of animals only

    Synonyms
    Examples

    This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat

    What do whales eat?

  7. serve as food for; be the food for

    Examples

    This dish feeds six

  8. move along, of liquids

    Broader terms
    Examples

    Water flowed into the cave

    the Missouri feeds into the Mississippi

  9. profit from in an exploitatory manner

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    He feeds on her insecurity

  10. gratify

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
    Examples

    feed one's eyes on a gorgeous view

  11. provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to

    Broader terms
    Examples

    We should fertilize soil if we want to grow healthy plants

Word forms
feedsfeedingfedfedfeeds

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