fodder
Americannoun
-
coarse food for livestock, composed of entire plants, including leaves, stalks, and grain, of such forages as corn and sorghum.
-
people considered as readily available and of little value.
cannon fodder.
-
raw material.
fodder for a comedian's routine.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
bulk feed for livestock, esp hay, straw, etc
-
raw experience or material
fodder for the imagination
verb
Synonym Usage
See feed.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foddersimple
-
fodderssimple
-
have fodderedperfect
-
has fodderedperfect
-
am fodderingprogressive
-
are fodderingprogressive
-
is fodderingprogressive
-
have been fodderingperfect progressive
-
has been fodderingperfect progressive
Past
-
fodderedsimple
-
had fodderedperfect
-
was fodderingprogressive
-
were fodderingprogressive
-
had been fodderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fodder
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English fodder, fōdor; cognate with German Futter; akin to food
Explanation
Fodder is cheap food, usually given to livestock animals like cows. If you gave a cow caviar or homemade scones, that would not be fodder. Try cornstalks. Fodder is not just used to describe cattle feed. We use the word to talk about other kinds of feeding that don't involve actual food. A new celebrity marriage is fodder for gossip magazines. In war, the soldiers most likely to be killed, are called cannon fodder, from the times when armies used canons instead of drone aircraft dropping missiles.
Vocabulary lists containing fodder
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Ender's Game
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
Founding Fodder: It’d be a great brand name for baby formula.
From Washington Post • Feb. 4, 2021
Fodder for the dumb guys you hung out with in high school.
From Time • Feb. 25, 2015
Jools and Jops were your earliest, ever-so-vulnerable troops in Cannon Fodder, and the longer you kept them alive the better they got.
From The Guardian • Jun. 3, 2014
On Saturday, Creatures of Comfort will be the host of in-store planting workshops with Fox Fodder Farm and UCB Pots.
From New York Times • Jul. 17, 2013
We christened the place on the Barrier edge Fodder Camp, and it was the general opinion that we could risk leaving the bales of hay here until the depot stuff had been taken south.
From South with Scott by Mountevans, Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, baron
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
