verb
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to give too little food to
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to supply (a furnace, engine, etc) with fuel from beneath
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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underfeedsimple
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underfeedssimple
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have underfedperfect
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has underfedperfect
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am underfeedingprogressive
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are underfeedingprogressive
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is underfeedingprogressive
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have been underfeedingperfect progressive
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has been underfeedingperfect progressive
Past
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underfedsimple
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had underfedperfect
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was underfeedingprogressive
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were underfeedingprogressive
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had been underfeedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of underfeed
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:
She will overwork you, I'm afraid: I only hope she won't underfeed you.
From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 of Popular Literature and Science by Various
Those who take foods which are stimulants are very likely to overeat, and when they leave off their stimulants they are equally likely to underfeed themselves.
From The Healthy Life, Vol. V, Nos. 24-28 The Independent Health Magazine by Daniel, Charles William
But many farmers about here will overwork and underfeed all the week, and on Sunday talk about being 'merciful to their beasts.'
From Opening a Chestnut Burr by Roe, Edward Payson
"You shouldn't underfeed the poor kid," said Wally.
From Captain Jim by Bruce, Mary Grant
One of these boilers is equipped with a Jones underfeed stoker, and is baffled in the regular way.
From Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 Federal Investigations of Mine Accidents, Structural Materials and Fuels. Paper No. 1171 by Wilson, Herbert M.
"Oh, pretty good," said the little woman, shrugging her shoulders, "though they do say she overcharges and underfeeds her lodgers."
From The Silent House by Hume, Fergus
She and other relatives say the men weren’t plotting a coup but raising concerns about issues such as underfed soldiers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Both movies ridicule aristocrats who are underfed yet over-sated: people for whom nothing is ever enough.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2023
Enlisted members of the Nationalist army were often underfed and scorned by their officers, and many ran away or defected to the CCP.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
The doctor's diagnosis is clear - Nitisha is underfed and malnourished.
From BBC ● Dec. 7, 2022
It proved to be a bony, underfed, and dispirited animal; but it did not look like dying just yet.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Many were Wurtembergers, and these for the most part appeared to be quite fit and sturdy, but if you looked at them closely you could see the effects of long, systematic underfeeding.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 24, 2018
That court order stems from a legal action that the Southern Center brought against Sheriff Franklin’s predecessor, Greg Bartlett, who had been underfeeding inmates while taking $212,000 in food money for his personal use.
From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2017
In a separate project, Dewhurst is analysing levels of exhaled ketones and sulfides in cow breath to reveal underfeeding and tissue breakdown or excess protein in their diet.
From Nature ● Apr. 25, 2017
Dietary patterns that swing too far toward this side of the pendulum risk overfeeding our human cells and underfeeding our microbial cells.
From US News ● Jul. 13, 2015
You've been at the tea again, and underfeeding, I expect, as usual.
From Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) Ghost Stories by French, Joseph Lewis
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.
