pabulum
Americannoun
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something that nourishes an animal or vegetable organism; food; nutriment.
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material for intellectual nourishment.
noun
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food
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food for thought, esp when bland or dull
Etymology
Origin of pabulum
1670–80; < Latin pābulum food, nourishment, equivalent to pā ( scere ) to feed (akin to food ) + -bulum noun suffix of instrument
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.
Typically after games, a media horde descends on their locker with the team’s public relations brass in tow, and athletes respond with guarded pabulum.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 27, 2024
It’s actually a pretty easy issue to defuse: just churn out some pabulum about how running for president is difficult and you’re thinking about the future of the country and blah blah blah.
From Salon • Oct. 7, 2015
This sort of pabulum is the norm, alas, not the exception.
From Washington Post • Sep. 11, 2015
In the recently released update for its efficiency study of the Iowa regent system, Deloitte Consulting managed to dish out a softer stew of pabulum than we expected - and we already expected mush.
From Washington Times • Jun. 16, 2014
Just as the fish swallow stones to aid the digestion, we need the accidents and frictions of life to triturate our moral pabulum, and render it more easily assimilable to our constitutions.
From Paul Gosslett's Confessions in Love, Law, and The Civil Service by Lever, Charles James
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.
