feed (f d)v. fed (f  d), feed·ing, feeds v.tr. 1. a. To give food to; supply with nourishment: feed the children. b. To provide as food or nourishment: fed fish to the cat. 2. a. To serve as food for: The turkey is large enough to feed a dozen. b. To produce food for: The valley feeds an entire county. 3. a. To provide for consumption, utilization, or operation: feed logs to a fire; feed data into a computer. b. To supply with something essential for growth, maintenance, or operation: Melting snow feeds the reservoirs. c. To distribute (a local radio or television broadcast) to a larger audience or group of receivers by way of a network or satellite. 4. a. To minister to; gratify: fed their appetite for the morbid. b. To support or promote; encourage: His unexplained absences fed our suspicions. 5. To supply as a cue: feed lines to an actor. 6. Sports To pass a ball or puck to (a teammate), especially to set up a scoring chance. v.intr. 1. To eat: pigs feeding at a trough. 2. To be nourished or supported: an ego that feeds on flattery. 3. a. To move steadily, as into a machine for processing. b. To be channeled; flow: This road feeds into the freeway. n. Idiom: 1. a. Food for animals or birds. b. The amount of such food given at one time. 2. Informal A meal, especially a large one. 3. The act of eating. 4. a. Material or an amount of material supplied, as to a machine or furnace. b. The act of supplying such material. 5. a. An apparatus that supplies material to a machine. b. The aperture through which such material enters a machine. 6. a. The transmission or conveyance of a local radio or television program, as by satellite, on the Internet, or by broadcast over a network of stations. b. A program or signal so transmitted or conveyed. 7. Sports A pass of a ball or puck, especially to set up a scoring chance. off (one's) feed Suffering a lack of appetite; sick: The dog is off its feed this week. [Middle English feden, from Old English f dan; see p - in Indo-European roots.] |
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. |  feeding - the act of consuming food chewing, mastication, chew, manduction - biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow mycophagy - the practice of eating fungi (especially mushrooms collected in the wild) consumption, ingestion, intake, uptake - the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating) coprophagia, coprophagy - eating feces; in human a symptom of some kinds of insanity dining - the act of eating dinner engorgement - eating ravenously or voraciously to satiation banqueting, feasting - eating an elaborate meal (often accompanied by entertainment) lunching - the act of eating lunch supping - ingestion of liquid food with a spoon or by drinking degustation, relishing, savoring, savouring, tasting - taking a small amount into the mouth to test its quality; "cooking was fine but it was the savoring that he enjoyed most" necrophagia, necrophagy - feeding on corpses or carrion omophagia - the eating of raw food scatophagy - the eating of excrement or other filth |
| 2. | feeding - the act of supplying food and nourishment infant feeding - feeding an infant forced feeding, gavage - feeding that consists of the delivery of a nutrient solution (as through a nasal tube) to someone who cannot or will not eat intravenous feeding, IV - administration of nutrients through a vein overfeeding - excessive feeding spoonfeeding - feeding someone (as a baby) from a spoon hyperalimentation, total parenteral nutrition, TPN - administration of a nutritionally adequate solution through a catheter into the vena cava; used in cases of long-term coma or severe burns or severe gastrointestinal syndromes |
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