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feed¹

  • /fiːd/
  • [fɪjd]

Rhymes with -iːd

Where it comes from

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.

verb feeds · feeding · fed

  1. transitive To give (someone or something) food to eat. Feed the dog every evening.
  2. intransitive To eat (usually of animals). Spiders feed on gnats and flies.
  3. ditransitive To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food. Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.
  4. transitive To give to a machine to be processed. Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.
  5. transitive To supply (a machine) with something to be processed. We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.
  6. figuratively, transitive To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.). If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
  7. transitive To supply with something. Springs feed ponds with water.
  8. transitive To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle. If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.
  9. transitive To pass to. 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. transitive To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule). Nasalization feeds raising.
  11. transitive To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).

feed²

  • /fiːd/
  • [fɪjd]

Rhymes with -iːd

Where it comes from

From Middle English fede, fed, from the verb (see above). Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse fœða (“nourishment, food”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), whence also Old English fēdan (“to feed”).

noun feeds

  1. uncountable Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals. They sell feed, riding helmets, and everything else for horses.
  2. countable, uncountable Something supplied continuously. a satellite feed
  3. countable, uncountable The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon. the paper feed of a printer
  4. countable, uncountable The part of a fountain pen that supplies ink to the nib.
  5. countable, uncountable The forward motion of the material fed into a machine.
  6. Australia, New Zealand, UK, colloquial, countable A meal. 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; […]
  7. countable A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities. They held a crab feed on the beach.
  8. Internet, countable, uncountable antichronological sequence of posts or articles from a single source, especially as consumable on a platform other as originally published. 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. Internet, countable, often, uncountable content intended for consumption by scrolling or swiping, especially as a home page and from multiple publishers followed or algorithmically curated 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.
  10. countable, uncountable A straight man who delivers lines to the comedian during a performance. 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 […]

feed³

  • /fiːd/
  • [fɪjd]

Rhymes with -iːd

Where it comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

verb

  1. participle, past simple past and past participle of fee

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