Dictionary.com
definitions

fodder

[ fod-er ]
/ ˈfɒd ər /
|
SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fodder ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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)

to feed with or as if with fodder.

RELATED CONTENT

Nobody’s Blinkered When Taking This Word Of The Day QuizThis Word of the Day Quiz will give you some great fodder for your next causerie.
READ MORE
Why Bluster Is Dictionary’s 2012 Word Of The YearYou may recall that last year we selected a rare word, a tongue-twister of sorts, as the 2011 Word of the Year: tergiversate which means “to change repeatedly one’s attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.; equivocate.” Rather than pick a word that rose to prominence through common usage during the year (like Occupy or Arab Spring), we selected a word hidden …
READ MORE

RELATED WORDS

forage, food, hay, grain, corn, barley, grub, provisions, provender, straw, grass, meal, silage, pasturage, vittles

Nearby words

  1. focus puller,
  2. focused,
  3. focused strategy,
  4. focusing cloth,
  5. focusing screen,
  6. fodderbeet,
  7. fodgel,
  8. foe,
  9. foefie slide,
  10. foehn

Origin of fodder

before 1000; Middle English; Old English fodder, fōdor; cognate with German Futter; akin to food

Synonym study

1. See feed.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fodder

British Dictionary definitions for fodder

fodder

/ (ˈfɒdə) /

noun

bulk feed for livestock, esp hay, straw, etc
raw experience or materialfodder for the imagination

verb

(tr) to supply (livestock) with fodder

Word Origin for fodder

Old English fōdor; related to Old Norse fōthr, Old High German fuotar; see food, forage
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fodder

fodder

n.

Old English fodder "food," especially "food for cattle," from Proto-Germanic *fodran (cf. Old Norse foðr, Middle Dutch voeder, Old High German fuotar, German Futter), from PIE *patrom, from *pa- "to feed" (see food).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper