feed

present singular third person feeds · participle present feeding · participle past fed · past fed

1. transitiveTo give (someone or something) food to eat.

   Feed the dog every evening.

   1 more example

   If thine enemy hunger, feed him.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:20

   Synonyms: nourish

2. intransitiveTo eat (usually of animals).

   Spiders feed on gnats and flies.

   4 more examples

   “The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what straits his majesty’s revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable; that the secretary’s expedient of putting out your eyes, was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat;[...]

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput)

   But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge,[…].

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

   If we have time we might go on to Brighton, feed at the 'Ship,' and come back in the cool.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   While feeding, the basking shark swims at about two knots per hour, and this enables it to eat and breathe in the same motion.

   1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 89

3. ditransitiveTo give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.

   Feed the fish to the dolphins.

   3 more examples

   Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.

   DR SIMEON: I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to.

   2012 December 25 (airdate), Steven Moffat, The Snowmen (Doctor Who)

   A young female farm worker was fed alive to a herd of pigs after allegedly being brutally raped and beaten by a colleague with a grudge against her father.

   2024 November 28, Taryn Kaur Pedler & Will Stewart, “Farm murder horror as girl, 17, is fed to pigs while still ALIVE 'after being beaten and raped by worker who held a grudge against her father'”, in dailymail.com

4. transitiveTo give to a machine to be processed.

   Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.

5. transitiveTo supply (a machine) with something to be processed.

   We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.

6. figurativelytransitiveTo satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).

   feeding him with the hope of liberty

   1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

   1 more example

   If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

7. transitiveTo supply with something.

   Springs feed ponds with water.

   1 more example

   The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed

   1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 67

8. transitiveTo graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.

   If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.

   1 more example

   Once in three years, or every other year, feed your mowing-lands.

   1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

9. transitivehobbiesTo 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

   2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1-3 Blackburn”, in BBC

10. transitivehuman sciencesTo create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule).

    Nasalization feeds raising.

11. transitivehuman sciencesTo create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).

plural feeds

1. uncountableFood given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals.

   They sell feed, riding helmets, and everything else for horses.

2. countableuncountableSomething supplied continuously.

   a satellite feed

3. countableuncountableThe part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.

   the paper feed of a printer

4. countableuncountablecommunicationsThe part of a fountain pen that supplies ink to the nib.
5. countableuncountableThe forward motion of the material fed into a machine.
6. AustraliaNew ZealandUKcolloquialcountableA 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; […]

   2 more examples

   "There won't be any more blessed concerts for a million years or so; there won't be any Royal Academy of Arts, and no nice little feeds at restaurants."

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 257

   ‘Still hungry! Well, we’ll see if Larry can find you a feed of beef when the billy’s boiled.’

   1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 111

7. countableA gathering to eat, especially in large quantities.

   They held a crab feed on the beach.

   Synonyms: feast

8. online content presented sequentially:
   1. Internetcountableuncountablesyndication or aggregationantichronological 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.

   2. Internetcountableoftenuncountablesocial mediacontent intended for consumption by scrolling or swiping, especially as a home page and from multiple publishers followed or algorithmically curated

      I use Native, that’s what other Native people on Facebook use. I have 660 friends. Tons of Native friends in my feed. Most of my friends, though, are people I don’t know, who’d happily friended me upon request.

      2018, Tommy Orange, “Edwin Black”, in There There, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 69

      2 more examples

      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.

      2016 March 15, Mike Isaac, “Instagram May Change Your Feed, Personalizing It With an Algorithm”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

      Despite spending years studying these toxic dynamics and the better part of a month watching them up close in strangers’ feeds, I was still, like so many, surprised to see it all reflected at the ballot box. We shouldn’t have been surprised; our divisions have been in front of our faces and inside our feeds this whole time.

      2020 November 24, Charlie Warzel, “What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

9. countableuncountableA 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 […]

   2020, Oliver Double, Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up, page 38

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of fee