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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Feed

Feed, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. FED; p. pr. & vb. n. FEED-ING.] [A-S. fēdan, O. Sax. fodian, fuodian, Goth. fodian, O. Fries. foda, feda, O. H. Ger. fōtgan, fuattan, M. H. Ger. vuoten, D. voeden, L. Ger. fōden, foden, Icel. & Sw. föda, Dan. föde, to nourish. Cf. FOOD and FODDER.] 1. To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to furnish with provisions. Unreasonable creatures feed their young. Shak. 2. To fill the wants of; to supply; to furnish; to satisfy; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal; to feed the eye with the beauties of scenery. The sight of lovers feedeth those in love. Shak. 3. 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.

  1. To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to an engine.
  2. (Mach.) To subject to operation, as to move the work to the cutting-tool, or the tool to the work, in machines for dressing or working wood, metal, and the like.

Feed, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To take food; to eat. He feeds upon the cooling shade. Spenser.

Sense 2. To subsist by eating; to prey;—with on or upon. Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. Shak.

Sense 3. To place cattle to feed; to pasture; to graze. Shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field. Ex. xxii. 5.

Sense 4. To grow fat. [Prov. Eng.] Johnson.

Feed, n.

noun

Feed, n. 1. That which is eaten by beasts; provender; fodder; pasture; as, hills that furnish the best feed for sheep.

  1. A grazing or pasture ground. Shak.
  2. A certain portion or allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, &c.; as, a feed of corn or oats.
  3. A large head or supply of melted iron for heavy castings. Simmonds.
  4. Meal, or act of eating. [Rare.]

For such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found. Milton.

  1. The water supplied to steam-boilers.
  2. (Mach.) The parts that move the work to the cutting-tool, or the tool to the work, in machines for dressing wood or metal. The feed may be actuated by hand or by the machine itself. [See Illust. of Lathe.]