feed
Americanverb (used with object)
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feeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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fed,
past participle, past
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feeding
present participle
-
to give food to; supply with nourishment.
to feed a child.
- Antonyms:
- starve
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to yield or serve as food for.
This land has fed 10 generations.
- Antonyms:
- starve
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to provide as food.
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to furnish for consumption.
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to satisfy; minister to; gratify.
Poetry feeds the imagination.
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to supply for maintenance or operation, as to a machine.
to feed paper into a photocopier.
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to provide with the necessary materials for development, maintenance, or operation.
to feed a printing press with paper.
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to use (land) as pasture.
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Theater Informal.
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to supply (an actor, especially a comedian) with lines or action, the responses to which are expected to elicit laughter.
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to provide cues to (an actor).
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Chiefly British. to prompt.
Stand in the wings and feed them their lines.
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Radio and Television. to distribute (a local broadcast) via satellite or network.
verb (used without object)
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feeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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fed,
past participle, past
-
feeding
present participle
-
(especially of animals) to take food; eat.
cows feeding in a meadow; to feed well.
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to be nourished or gratified; subsist.
to feed on grass; to feed on thoughts of revenge.
noun
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feeds
plural
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food, especially for farm animals, as cattle, horses or chickens.
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an allowance, portion, or supply of such food.
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Informal. a meal, especially a lavish one.
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the act of feeding.
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the act or process of feeding a furnace, machine, etc.
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the material, or the amount of it, so fed or supplied.
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a feeding mechanism.
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Electricity. feeder.
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Theater Informal.
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a line spoken by one actor, the response to which by another actor is expected to cause laughter.
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an actor, especially a straight man, who provides such lines.
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a local television broadcast distributed by satellite or network to a much wider audience, especially nationwide or international.
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Digital Technology.
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a website or application that publishes updates from social media or news-collection websites in reverse chronological order.
I follow all of the latest celebrity gossip in my Twitter feed.
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an XML-based web document that is updated automatically at predetermined intervals and includes descriptive titles or short descriptions and links to recent pages on a website.
Subscribe to news feeds to get the latest news from around the world.
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idioms
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chain feed, to pass (work) successively into a machine in such a manner that each new piece is held in place by or connected to the one before.
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off one's feed,
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reluctant to eat; without appetite.
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dejected; sad.
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not well; ill.
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verb
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to give food to
to feed the cat
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to give as food
to feed meat to the cat
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(intr) to eat food
the horses feed at noon
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to provide food for
these supplies can feed 10 million people
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to provide what is necessary for the existence or development of
to feed one's imagination
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to gratify; satisfy
to feed one's eyes on a beautiful sight
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(also intr) to supply (a machine, furnace, etc) with (the necessary materials or fuel) for its operation, or (of such materials) to flow or move forwards into a machine, etc
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to use (land) as grazing
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informal theatre to cue (an actor, esp a comedian) with lines or actions
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sport to pass a ball to (a team-mate)
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electronics to introduce (electrical energy) into a circuit, esp by means of a feeder
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(also intr; foll by on or upon) to eat or cause to eat
noun
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the act or an instance of feeding
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food, esp that of animals or babies
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the process of supplying a machine or furnace with a material or fuel
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the quantity of material or fuel so supplied
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computing a facility allowing web users to receive news headlines and updates on their browser from a website as soon as they are published
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the rate of advance of a cutting tool in a lathe, drill, etc
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a mechanism that supplies material or fuel or controls the rate of advance of a cutting tool
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informal theatre a performer, esp a straight man, who provides cues
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informal a meal
Synonym Usage
Feed, fodder, forage, provender mean food for animals. Feed is the general word: pig feed; chicken feed. Fodder is especially applied to dry or green feed, as opposed to pasturage, fed to horses, cattle, etc.: fodder for winter feeding; Cornstalks are good fodder. Forage is food that an animal obtains (usually grass, leaves, etc.) by searching about for it: Lost cattle can usually live on forage. Provender denotes dry feed, such as hay, oats, or corn: a supply of provender in the haymow and corn cribs.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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feedsimple
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feedssimple
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have fedperfect
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has fedperfect
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am feedingprogressive
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are feedingprogressive
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is feedingprogressive
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have been feedingperfect progressive
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has been feedingperfect progressive
Past
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fedsimple
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had fedperfect
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was feedingprogressive
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were feedingprogressive
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had been feedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of feed
First recorded before 950; Middle English feden, Old English fēdan; cognate with Gothic fōdjan, Old Saxon fōdian. See food
Explanation
To feed someone is to give them something to eat. Part of your daily morning routine might be remembering to feed your cat. When you feed a dog, you put food in his bowl, and when you feed your extended family, you might cook them a Thanksgiving feast. Animals are sometimes said "to feed," or to consume or eat, and you can also use the word to mean "food for an animal," or "to supply or promote." The Old English root is fedan, "nourish, sustain, or foster."
Vocabulary lists containing feed
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They also feed into a shift towards "casual, low-commitment viewing that we can dip in and out of," says Dr Tina Kendall, associate professor of film and media at Anglia Ruskin University.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026
After hatching, the larvae feed on the roots, sometimes destroying enough tissue to kill the tree.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
Policymakers are watching whether higher energy and production costs will feed through to broader consumer prices and inflation expectations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Google itself has faced questions about what might become of its traditional search-engine business if more people feed their questions into AI.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
His mom took him there to feed him, and sometimes he got so interested in listening to the squeak of the chair and looking at the pictures on the walls that he forgot to eat.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
Social media feeds have lit up with events like “wellness darties,” daytime parties featuring runs and workouts, cold plunges, sauna tents, optional IV hydration drips, and not a keg stand in sight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2026
Mark Lamb, formerly the sheriff of Pinal County, was once a celebrity sheriff as a regular on Live PD, the hugely popular show in which law enforcement officers broadcast live feeds of their work.
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2026
Eventually, our personalized feeds start feeling like objective reality.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 1, 2026
“Voters are so sick of ads; they’re getting tons of clear paid advertisements on the radio, on the television and on their social media feeds now,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026
It feeds mainly on rats and birds, though has been known to carry off monkeys.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
He gave it the female name Mashka and fed it pieces of cracker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
I especially love sitting down to something delicious afterward, knowing I’ve fed the muscles I just worked.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
Her hopes were raised when an image of him was sent through by a woman named Melissa, who claimed to have fed her cat and wanted reward money for her autistic grandchildren.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
A resident who allegedly fed a coyote in Atwater Village for months may now face a criminal charge after a toddler was bitten in the neighborhood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026
They must be fed a snack every hour or so, and three or more hot meals a day.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
I don’t mean to discourage lofty goals, but we’ve been let down time after time, feeding cynicism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2026
A couple of weeks later, he glanced outside and saw dozens of orange and black butterflies feeding on them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
On a windy hillside about an hour's drive northwest of Istanbul, the Catalca power plant was one of Turkey's first large-scale wind farms and has been feeding electricity into the grid for 18 years.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
The researchers found that surviving fragments of fast-growing Acroporidae corals did not regenerate over the areas damaged by starfish feeding.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
For the first time I wondered how he and Tine were feeding the elderly men and women in their care.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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