Definition of Feed

  • (imp. & p. p.) of Fee
  • (v. t.) To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of.
  • (v. t.) To satisfy; grafity or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire.
  • (v. t.) To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal.
  • (v. t.) To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard.
  • (v. t.) 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.
  • (v. t.) To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to a steam boiler.
  • (v. t.) To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing press.
  • (v. t.) To produce progressive operation upon or with (as in wood and metal working machines, so that the work moves to the cutting tool, or the tool to the work).
  • (v. i.) To take food; to eat.
  • (v. i.) To subject by eating; to satisfy the appetite; to feed one's self (upon something); to prey; -- with on or upon.
  • (v. i.) To be nourished, strengthened, or satisfied, as if by food.
  • (v. i.) To place cattle to feed; to pasture; to graze.
  • (n.) That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep.
  • (n.) A grazing or pasture ground.
  • (n.) An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.
  • (n.) A meal, or the act of eating.
  • (n.) The water supplied to steam boilers.
  • (n.) The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work.
  • (n.) The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones.
  • (n.) The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion.

Antonyms of Feed


Homophones of Feed