fodder
Americannoun
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fodders
plural
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coarse food for livestock, composed of entire plants, including leaves, stalks, and grain, of such forages as corn and sorghum.
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people considered as readily available and of little value.
cannon fodder.
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raw material.
fodder for a comedian's routine.
verb (used with object)
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fodders,
present (3rd person singular)
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foddered,
past participle, past
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foddering
present participle
noun
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bulk feed for livestock, esp hay, straw, etc
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raw experience or material
fodder for the imagination
verb
Synonym Usage
See feed.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foddersimple
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fodderssimple
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have fodderedperfect
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has fodderedperfect
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am fodderingprogressive
-
are fodderingprogressive
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is fodderingprogressive
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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
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Ender's Game
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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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:
Clips from the film, such as Matt Damon's Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship while listening to the sirens' song, have quickly become fodder for social media memes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
The article became fodder for questions Wednesday before the Fever’s 123-88 victory against the Connecticut Sun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Rana’s lawsuit was initially filed anonymously, but his identity quickly became public and his allegations turned into social-media fodder.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
But are they just social media fodder, or actually worth spending time and money on?
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
The beat of the rain against the roof of the fodder house, against its sides, would be their only Christmas greeting.
From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry
This same principle applies in lesser degree to many green fodders that are more suitable as feed for animals, as silage, green rye, rape, etc.
From Outlines of Dairy Bacteriology, 8th edition A Concise Manual for the Use of Students in Dairying by H. L. (Harry Luman) Russell
The amount will be influenced by the character of the fodders and by the season when the cattle are to be sold.
From Pratt's Practical Pointers on the Care of Livestock and Poultry by Pratt Food Co.
They love the stack and hay-barn in the distant field, where the farmer fodders his cattle upon the snow, and every red-root, ragweed, or pigweed left standing in the fall adds to their winter stores.
From Birds and Poets : with Other Papers by John Burroughs
Not infrequently, such fodders as these produce so strong a taint in milk as to render it useless for human use.
From Outlines of Dairy Bacteriology, 8th edition A Concise Manual for the Use of Students in Dairying by H. L. (Harry Luman) Russell
Dairymen prefer it to nearly all kinds of fodders grown, and the same is true of shepherds.
From Clovers and How to Grow Them by Thomas Shaw
I love to start out arter night's begun, An' all the chores about the farm are done, The critters milked an' foddered, gates shet fast, Tools cleaned aginst to-morrer, supper past.
From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by James Russell Lowell
Have any men come home to the young women, Thinking old women do not need to hear, That you can play at being a bower-maid In a long gown although no beasts are foddered?
From King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve; Laodice and Dana? by Gordon Bottomley
Before offering to sleep, Dell collected all the articles that were to make up the pack, foddered the horses, set the alarm forward an hour, and sought his blankets for a short rest.
From Wells Brothers The Young Cattle Kings by Andy Adams
The cows came briskly to the rack in which he foddered them in pleasant weather, and when he scratched them between the horns they turned their mild, Juno-like eyes upon him with undisguised affection.
From He Fell in Love with His Wife by Edward Payson Roe
At 2 p.m., or thereabouts, they are foddered again, and at 4 p.m. receive the same food as at the morning meal.
From The Stock-Feeder's Manual the chemistry of food in relation to the breeding and feeding of live stock by Sir Charles Alexander Cameron
The ploughmen take their dinners in the sheds where the mules are allowed to rest; and since two hours is usually given these animals, for rest and foddering, they, of course, must take the same.
From Step by Step; or Tidy's Way to Freedom by American Tract Society
Alas! what with foddering the cattle and tending the store, we are kept from school too long, and our education is sadly neglected.
From Walden by Henry David Thoreau
In time, however, the grazier was compelled to do this, and also to grow alfalfa for winter foddering.
From Commercial Geography A Book for High Schools, Commercial Courses, and Business Colleges by Jacques W. (Jacques Wardlaw) Redway
The expense of maintaining and increasing his stock of cars, and of foddering his horses was very great; and he was always on the look-out for more capital.
From Men of Invention and Industry by Samuel Smiles
Whilst Jacques assisted the rancher and Lagrange in foddering the horses, Dorothy busied herself with preparations for a meal.
From The Rising of the Red Man A Romance of the Louis Riel Rebellion by John Mackie
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.
