feed
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfiːd/
rhymes: -iːd
Forms: form: feeds
form: feeding
form: fed
form: fed
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Feed the dog every evening.
text: If thine enemy hunger, feed him.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:20:
glosses: To give (someone or something) food to eat.
examples: text: Spiders feed on gnats and flies.
text: “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;[...]
ref: 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
text: 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,[…].
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: While feeding, the basking shark swims at about two knots per hour, and this enables it to eat and breathe in the same motion.
ref: 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 89:
glosses: To eat (usually of animals).
examples: text: Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.
text: Feed the fish to the dolphins.
text: DR SIMEON: I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to.
ref: 2012 December 25 (airdate), Steven Moffat, The Snowmen (Doctor Who)
glosses: To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.
examples: text: Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.
glosses: To give to a machine to be processed.
examples: text: We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.
glosses: To supply (a machine) with something to be processed.
examples: text: If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
text: feeding him with the hope of liberty
ref: 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
glosses: To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).
examples: text: Springs feed ponds with water.
text: The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
ref: 1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 67:
glosses: To supply with something.
examples: text: If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.
text: Once in three years, or every other year, feed your mowing-lands.
ref: 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] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
glosses: To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
examples: text: 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
ref: 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1-3 Blackburn”, in BBC:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To pass to.
examples: text: Nasalization feeds raising.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonology
sciences
glosses: To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule).
raw_tags: of a phonological rule
examples: text: This orthodox analysis […] leads to the conclusion that […] Subject–Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) is fed by the contraction operation.
ref: 1983, Arnold M. Zwicky, Geoffrey K. Pullum, “Cliticization vs. Inflection: English N'T”, in Language, volume 59, number 3, →JSTOR, page 506:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
syntax
glosses: To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).
raw_tags: of a syntactic rule
Synonyms: sense: to give food to eat
word: nourish
Derived terms: 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
feedhole
feeding
feed into
feedism
feedline
feedlot
feed off
feed on
feed one's face
feedpoint
feedroom
feedsack
feed the dragon
feed the fire
feed the flames
feed the meter
feed the troll
feed through
feedthrough
feed two birds with one scone
feed up
feedway
feedyard
force-feed
fullfeed
give a man a fish and you feed him for a day
teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
handfeed
high-fed
misfeed
overfeed
refeed
self-feed
spoon-fed
spoon-feed
stall-feed
stubble-fed
there's more than one way to feed a cat
underfeed
weed-and-feed
well-fed
winter-feed