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
Related Words
See feed.
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.
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
On Dec. 13 and 14, Hillside, along with Fox Fodder Farm, a floral and garden design studio, will host a Christmas crafts market, one of a regular series of markets featuring the work of women.
From New York Times • Nov. 12, 2014
Developer Sensible Software's genius shows in how Cannon Fodder is so anti-war, yet the intro song remains accurate: "War! Never been so much fun!"
From The Guardian • Jun. 3, 2014
Fodder found one rein loosened—the other drawn violently round; the consequence was, that from a straight course, he suddenly came to adopt a circular one.
From The Last of the Foresters Or, Humors on the Border; A story of the Old Virginia Frontier by Cooke, John Esten
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.
