supply

present singular third person supplies · participle present supplying · participle past supplied · past supplied

1. transitiveTo provide (something), to make (something) available for use.

   to supply money for the war

   Synonyms: fulfill

2. transitiveTo furnish or equip with.

   to supply a furnace with fuel; to supply soldiers with ammunition

   Synonyms: line

3. transitiveTo fill up, or keep full.

   Rivers are supplied by smaller streams.

4. transitiveTo compensate for, or make up a deficiency of.

   It was objected against him that he had never experienced love. Whereupon he arose, left the society, and made it a point not to return to it until he considered that he had supplied the defect.

   1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque

   1 more example

   It has been left for the comparative method, after thousands of years, to supply the blank in the ancient canvas, and to restore, in all their primitive crudity, the gay barbaric colours which the skilful hand of the Hebrew artist had softened or effaced.

   1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 77

5. transitiveTo serve instead of; to take the place of.

   Burning ships the banished sun supply.

   1666, Edmund Waller, Instructions to a Painter

   1 more example

   The sun was set, and Vesper, to supply His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.

   1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

6. intransitiveTo act as a substitute.
7. transitiveTo fill temporarily; to serve as substitute for another in, as a vacant place or office; to occupy; to have possession of.

   to supply a pulpit

plural supplies

1. uncountableThe act of supplying.
2. countableAn amount of something supplied.

   A supply of good drinking water is essential.

   1 more example

   She said, "China has always had a freshwater supply problem with 20 percent of the world’s population but only 7 percent of its freshwater".

3. countableuncountableeconomicsThe market force that causes sellers to be both willing and able to sell a good or service, as measured by the amount of that good or service that is currently available to be bought at any given price point; the amount itself.

   Supply and demand ebb and flow in a complex interplay.

   1 more example

   The supply of timber to the region's mills was lower than expected this month, owing to transport problems posed by wildfires.

   Antonyms: demand

4. countablein pluraluncountableProvisions.

   They are busy laying in supplies for the coming winter.

5. countablein pluraluncountableAn amount of money provided, as by Parliament or Congress, to meet the annual national expenditures.

   to vote supplies

6. countableuncountableSomebody, such as a teacher or clergyman, who temporarily fills the place of another; a substitute.

comparative more supply · superlative most supply · alternative supplely

1. Supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.

   His voice was playful and full; his back was bent supply.

   1906, Ford Madox Ford, The fifth queen: and how she came to court, page 68

   3 more examples

   […] the rain struck on her head as she bent supply to the movements of the pony, while it scrambled up the bank to the sheltering trees. For a couple of miles the path ran through woods alive with the varied voices of the rain, […]

   1938, David Leslie Murray, Commander of the mists

   She swayed slightly in the gusts, bent supply to them and seemed at one with the force which Straup found so hostile.

   1963, Johanna Moosdorf, Next door

   Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows. 'They'll see!' 'Let them!' 'I'd be ashamed—'

   1988, Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Шо́лохов (Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov), Quiet flows the Don (translated), volume 1, page 96