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force feed
force feednounlubrication under pressure, as from a pump, used especially in internal-combustion engines.
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force-feed
force-feedverb (used with object)to compel to take food, especially by means of a tube inserted into the throat.
force feed
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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to compel to take food, especially by means of a tube inserted into the throat.
They force-fed the prisoners in the hunger strike.
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to compel to absorb or assimilate.
The recruits were force-fed a military attitude.
verb
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to force (a person or animal) to eat or swallow food
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to force (someone) to receive opinions, propaganda, etc
noun
Etymology
Origin of force feed1
First recorded in 1915–20
Origin of force-feed2
First recorded in 1905–10
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:
Harden and Russell Westbrook played well, but Kawhi Leonard was such a non-factor in the first half that Lue had to order his players to force feed him in the third quarter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
Limiting Patterson is hard, though, as the Falcons continue to force feed their breakout playmaker with so many touches that he’s tied for the sixth-most touchdowns from scrimmage.
From New York Times ● Dec. 16, 2021
Fangio said he’s certain his fiery first-round draft pick will use the letdown as kindling for a prosperous career, but he’s not going to force feed him the ball Sunday.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 31, 2020
Yeast also needs to consume sugar gradually—a production plant can’t force feed the cells at a faster clip.
From Slate ● Apr. 15, 2020
“You’ll have to force feed her—strong soup and eggs and cod liver oil.”
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
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“It’s hard to feed bats in care because they normally eat in flight, so we could have to force-feed 1,544 bats, which is a lot.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2022
There was a natural tendency in Week 1 for teams that acquired elite veteran receivers to force-feed their new weapons.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2022
His teammates nearly tripped over themselves at times in an effort to force-feed him the puck.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2022
I text back "I'm really sorry I tried to force-feed you Weetabix".
From BBC ● Apr. 9, 2020
Even with the nectar and ambrosia they’d managed to force-feed him, Piper couldn’t be sure he would be okay when he woke up.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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It was a funny rebuke to the force-fed notion that sports champions are these locked-in super computers with scrupulous attention to detail.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
McDonald, who wrote the bestseller, “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense,” said tech representation in the S&P 500 is so high that retail investors are being force-fed the sector.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
They’re not given tools for critical thinking, but force-fed ready-made schemes for perceiving the world.
From Slate ● Oct. 18, 2025
Taylor Bradford was born in Leeds, where her mother "force-fed me books", and young Barbara had her first story published at the age of 10 in a children’s magazine.
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2024
So he left and wandered, delighting in the freedom of Northern Italy, where he could ruminate on matters remote from the subjects he had been force-fed in his highly disciplined Prussian schoolroom.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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He said that in the wild, ducks gorge before migration and store fat in their livers and argues that "gavage" -- the process of force-feeding -- is a traditional means of animal husbandry.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
Today, producers are concentrated in the eastern provinces of Shandong and Anhui, where farmers churn out thousands of tons of foie gras by force-feeding ducks and geese to enlarge their livers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
The primary means by which Meta has encouraged adoption of its A.I. can be generously described as digital force-feeding.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2025
An Instagram post by Navalny about his hunger strike ordeal employed the biting tone to which his followers were accustomed, describing how a prison official “detailed the joys of force-feeding to me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
At the same time that he was force-feeding us tribalism we were learning other ways of life, modern ways, from mingling with children whose parents had shed their tribal cloth and embraced Western culture.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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