feed

• IPA^(key): /ˈfiːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːd

From Middle English feede, from Old English fēdan (“to feed”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with West Frisian fiede (“to nourish, feed”), Dutch voeden (“to feed”), Danish føde (“to bring forth, feed”), Swedish föda (“to bring forth, feed”), Icelandic fæða (“to feed”), and more distantly with Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb) through Indo-European. More at food, fodder.

feed (third-person singular simple present feeds, present participle feeding, simple past and past participle fed or (nonstandard) feeded)

1. (ditransitive) To give (someone or something) food to eat.

   Feed the dog every evening.

   • Bible, Romans xii.20:

     If thine enemy hunger, feed him.

2. (intransitive) To eat (usually of animals).

   Spiders feed on gnats and flies.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 035:

     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, […].

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

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

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

   Feed the fish to the dolphins.

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

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

4. (transitive) To give to a machine to be processed.

   Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.

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

5. (figuratively) To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).
   • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene iii:

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

   • (Can we date this quote?) Richard Knolles

     feeding him with the hope of liberty

6. To supply with something.

   Springs feed ponds with water.

7. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.

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

   • (Can we date this quote?) Mortimer

     Once in three years feed your mowing lands.

8. (sports, transitive) To pass to.
   • 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1-3 Blackburn”, in BBC:

     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

9. (phonology, of a phonological rule) To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before another rule.

   Nasalization feeds raising.

10. (syntax, of a syntactic rule) To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before another syntactic rule.
    • 1983, Arnold M. Zwicky; Geoffrey K. Pullum, “Cliticization vs. Inflection: English N'T”, in Language, volume 59, number 3, JSTOR 413900, page 506:

      This orthodox analysis […] leads to the conclusion that […] Subject–Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) is fed by the contraction operation.

(to give food to eat): nourish

• underfeed

feed (countable and uncountable, plural feeds)

1. (uncountable) Food given to (especially herbivorous) animals.

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

2. Something supplied continuously.

   a satellite feed

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

   the paper feed of a printer

4. The forward motion of the material fed into a machine.
5. (countable) A gathering to eat, especially in quantity

   They held a crab feed on the beach.

6. (Internet) Encapsulated online content, such as news or a blog, that can be subscribed to.

   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.

fe(e) + -(e)d

feed

1. simple past tense and past participle of fee

• deef, e-fed

From Old Irish fichet (compare Scottish Gaelic fichead), genitive singular of fiche (“twenty”), from Proto-Celtic *wikantī (compare Welsh ugain), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁wih₁ḱm̥t (compare Latin vīgintī), from *dwi(h₁)dḱm̥ti (“two-ten”).

• IPA^(key): /fiːdʒ/

feed

1. twenty

• “fiche” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

Borrowed from English feed.

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈfid͡ʒ/

feed m (plural feeds)

1. (Internet) feed (encapsulated online content that one can subscribe to)

Borrowed from English feed.

feed m (plural feeds)

1. (Internet) feed (encapsulated online content that one can subscribe to)
   • 2019 March 13, Leslie Santana, “Primero Facebook, y ahora cae Instagram”, in El Universal (Mexico)‎:

     De acuerdo con downdetector.com un 49% de los usuarios de la red, no puede actualizar su feed, el 31% no logra entrar a Instagram y el 18% no puede verlo desde su computadora.

     According to downdetector.com, 49% of the network's users can't update their feed, 31% can't enter Instagram and 18% can't see it on their computer.