cater
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkeɪtə/
ipa: /ˈkeɪɾɚ/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈkeʈə(ɾ)/
note: Indic
ipa: /ˈkaʈə(ɾ)/
rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)
rhymes: (Indic, also) -ætə(ɹ)
Forms: form: caters
form: catering
form: catered
form: catered
Etymology: From Middle English catour (“acater, provisioner”), aphetic form of acatour (“acater”), from Old French acater (“to buy, to purchase”). Equivalent to cate + -er.
Senses: examples: text: Noe widdowes curse caters a dish of mine.
ref: a. 1635, Thomas Randolph, Poems, On the Inestimable Content He Injoyes, page 4:
text: Priya’s parents’ Hinduism seemed to present conflicting views of sex: […] What people don’t know about the Kama Sutra is that it’s actually a text that … very heavily caters to Madonna/whore complexes. That it’s actually quite misogynistic. And that it’s actually catered more for male pleasure and … males always will have the upper hand according to the Kama Sutra.
ref: 2020, Pamela Dickey Young, Heather Shipley, “Emerging-Adult Opinions on Religion and Sexuality”, in Identities Under Construction: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality among Youth in Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, →ISBN, pages 59–60:
text: Huludao’s Xingcheng county and two districts have ordered entertainment venues such as theatres and cinemas to close, while restaurants are not to offer banqueting services or cater for large gatherings.
ref: 2022 February 10, Zhuang Pinghui, “Omicron cases crash in ‘vital window’ for China city Baise’s outbreak battle”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2022, Science:
glosses: To provide, particularly
examples: text: I catered for her bat mitzvah.
text: His company catered our wedding.
text: He that doth the Rauens feede,
Yea prouidently caters for the Sparrow.
ref: a. 1616, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 2, scene 3, lines 45 ff.:
glosses: To provide
To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
examples: text: I always wanted someone to cater to my every whim.
text: Art... was... catering to the national taste and vanity.
ref: 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketch Book, volume 2, page 16:
text: And on the other side of the enter key, they would almost invariably find forums collectively celebrating individuals’ secret desires, or enterprising smut-mongers catering directly to them.
ref: 2016 July 14, Mark Hay, “Datagasm”, in Aeon:
glosses: To provide
To provide anything required or desired, often (derogatory) to pander.
raw_tags: with 'to'
examples: text: The business caters for young professionals.
text: A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".
ref: 1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27:
text: The former were catered for both by liquor stores and, to a lesser extent, by the bottle shops of hotels.
ref: 1998, Sherry Saggers, Dennis Gray, Dealing with Alcohol: Indigenous Usage in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, page 108:
glosses: To provide
To tailor something to an intended audience.
raw_tags: with 'for'
Derived terms: caterer
cateress
cater-waiter
catery
self-catering
self-catered