sup·ply

(sə-plī′)

tr.v. sup·plied, sup·ply·ing, sup·plies

1. To make available for use; provide: Does the hotel supply towels?

2. To provide something necessary or desired to; furnish or equip: supplied the players with uniforms. See Synonyms at furnish.

3. To have as a necessary or desirable feature: a crime scene that supplied valuable evidence.

4. To fill sufficiently; satisfy: supply a need.

5. To make up for (a deficiency, for example); compensate for.

n. pl. sup·plies

1. The act of supplying: funds for the supply of the expedition.

2. An amount available or sufficient for a given use; stock: Our supply of milk is low.

3. often supplies Materials or provisions stored and dispensed when needed.

4. Economics The amount of a commodity available for meeting a demand or for purchase at a given price.

[Middle English supplien, to help, complete, furnish with additional troops, from Old French soupleer, to fill up, from Latin supplēre : sub-, from below; see sub- + plēre, to fill; see pelə- in Indo-European roots.]

sup·pli′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

supplying - the activity of supplying or providing something

provision, supply

activity - any specific behavior; "they avoided all recreational activity"

irrigation - supplying dry land with water by means of ditches etc

alimentation, feeding - the act of supplying food and nourishment

fueling, refueling - the activity of supplying or taking on fuel

care delivery, health care delivery, healthcare delivery - the provision of health care

issuance, issuing, issue - the act of providing an item for general use or for official purposes (usually in quantity); "a new issue of stamps"; "the last issue of penicillin was over a month ago"

logistics - handling an operation that involves providing labor and materials be supplied as needed

purveyance - the act of supplying something

stocking - the activity of supplying a stock of something; "he supervised the stocking of the stream with trout"

subvention - the act or process of providing aid or help of any sort

Translations

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

From a deficiency in this particular, one of two evils must ensue; either the people must be subjected to continual plunder, as a substitute for a more eligible mode of supplying the public wants, or the government must sink into a fatal atrophy, and, in a short course of time, perish.

If the opinions of those who contend for the distinction which has been mentioned were to be received as evidence of truth, one would be led to conclude that there was some known point in the economy of national affairs at which it would be safe to stop and to say: Thus far the ends of public happiness will be promoted by supplying the wants of government, and all beyond this is unworthy of our care or anxiety.

View in context

Will each bring the result of his labours into a common stock?--the individual husbandman, for example, producing for four, and labouring four times as long and as much as he need in the provision of food with which he supplies others as well as himself; or will he have nothing to do with others and not be at the trouble of producing for them, but provide for himself alone a fourth of the food in a fourth of the time, and in the remaining three-fourths of his time be employed in making a house or a coat or a pair of shoes, having no partnership with others, but supplying himself all his own wants?

View in context

Being owned by private adventurers, or casual voyagers, who cared only for present profit, and had no interest in the permanent prosperity of the trade, they were reckless in their dealings with the natives, and made no scruple of supplying them with fire-arms.

View in context

They discovered that we were supplying a real want in the community.

View in context