feeding

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of feed

plural feedings

1. uncountableThe act or process of giving food.

   premium blend for feeding of dairy herds

2. countableAn instance or session of giving food.

   the morning feeding might differ from the evening feeding in protein content

   2 more examples

   optimal intervals between feedings for neonates with weak esophagogastric sphincter

   […] they are nevertheless always like the lion's keeper, who, when by long patience, a thousand feedings, and a thousand clawings, he hath made a fierce lion familiar, yet never gives him meat, but with pulling back his hand, always in fear […]

   1750, The Universal Magazine, volume 7, page 52

3. uncountableusuallyThe act or process of eating.

   feeding from round bales is necessary here in winter, when pasturage is ebbed

4. countableusuallyAn instance or session of eating.

   picked up hardware disease during a feeding outside the intended pasture

5. countabledateduncountableThat which is eaten: food, feed, or fodder.
6. countabledateduncountableThat which furnishes or affords food, especially for animals.
7. uncountableThe loading of material into a machine that will process it.

   caution in the feeding of the No. 3 mill