victual
Americannoun
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victuals, food supplies; provisions.
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food or provisions for human beings.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to take or obtain victuals.
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Archaic. to eat or feed.
verb
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to supply with or obtain victuals
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rare (intr) (esp of animals) to partake of victuals
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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revictualverb
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unvictualedadjective
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unvictualledadjective
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victual-lessadjective
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victuallessadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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victualsimple
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victualssimple
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have victualedperfect
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have victualledperfect
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has victualedperfect
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has victualledperfect
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am victualingprogressive
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am victuallingprogressive
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are victualingprogressive
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are victuallingprogressive
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is victualingprogressive
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is victuallingprogressive
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have been victualingperfect progressive
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have been victuallingperfect progressive
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has been victualingperfect progressive
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has been victuallingperfect progressive
Past
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victualedsimple
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victualledsimple
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had victualedperfect
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had victualledperfect
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was victualingprogressive
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was victuallingprogressive
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were victualingprogressive
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were victuallingprogressive
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had been victualingperfect progressive
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had been victuallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of victual
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English vitaille, from Anglo-French, Middle French vitail(l)e, Old French vituaille, from Late Latin victuālia “provisions,” noun use of neuter plural of Latin victuālis “pertaining to food,” equivalent to victu(s) “nourishment, way of living” ( vic-, variant stem of vīvere “to live” + -tus suffix of verb action) + -ālis -al 1; modern spelling from Latin
Explanation
A victual is anything that can be eaten. Victuals are food. Victual is a fancy word for a very simple thing: any substance that can be used as food. Everything in the food pyramid is a victual, and whatever you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks are victuals. Words that apply to victuals are eatable and edible. A toddler eating a cigarette butt doesn't quite understand what's a victual and what's not.
Vocabulary lists containing victual
Much Ado About Nothing
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The Secret Garden
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Quartering Act (1765)
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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:
Scholars long thought that the capability to construct and victual a watercraft and then navigate it to a distant coast arrived only with advent of agriculture and animal domestication.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 24, 2018
In 1592, Hideyoshi, founder of the navy, used his ships to land troops in Korea, to victual their beachheads.
From Time Magazine Archive
Preachments against war have come to savor strongly of zwieback, a victual which most people can take or leave at will.
From Time Magazine Archive
Finally the ship had so much victual booty that an extra meal was served: afternoon coffee with bonbons.
From Time Magazine Archive
They were used as fishermen, and for striking tortoises and manitees, one202 Indian being able to victual a vessel of 100 men.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Thornbury, Walter
Oh, and if you’re on a tight budget, Walmart is your best bet for healthy victuals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
When it’s in the hands of cinematic chef and film critic Justin Chang, the visual victuals can be sumptuous.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2022
Now, home cooks follow restaurant chefs, hoping to glean the secrets of serving exceptional victuals.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2022
“It tastes like chewing on a urine-infested mattress,” said Samuel West, who, as curator of the Disgusting Food Museum, knows a thing or two about unpleasant victuals.
From Reuters ● Nov. 2, 2018
If not for Eliza’s fine victuals, and the hungry customers who paid to eat them, we’d have been in the streets long ago.
From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Buffets of barbecued brisket, ham on the bone and oysters victualed the multitudes as they passed through exhibitions of work by Alexander Calder, Yto Barrada, Peter Hujar and David Hockney.
From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2019
But the Herald Tribune has never found it easy to keep its 62-year-old outpost victualed and supplied.
From Time Magazine Archive
He sent to far kingdoms for woodsmen, carpenters, metalsmiths, goldsmiths—also carters, victualed, clothiers to attend to the workmen—and for weeks their uproar filled the days and nights.
From "Grendel" by John Gardner
"But you don't get a company of two hundred horse and horsemen watered and victualed and armed and saddled and started all in a minute. Now: what's our direction? Due North?"
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Thousands of the villages through which the traveler eats his way may never have victualed a caravan before.
From Library of the World's Best literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 12 by Various
"I gave no orders for the boat to be victualled," exclaimed the kapitan.
From Rounding up the Raider A Naval Story of the Great War by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)
We are thoroughly armed, manned, and victualled; winter is gone, and the winds will serve.
From Sea-Dogs All! A Tale of Forest and Sea by Bevan, Tom
Then it was, in Cornish phrase, “busy all” to get the yacht overhauled and well victualled.
From A Singer from the Sea by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
They were amply provided with water, and, as we have seen, were well victualled for a siege longer than this was likely to prove.
From History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain Volume The Third and Biographical & Critical Miscellanies by Prescott, William Hickling
It was well victualled for a siege, at least with grain, of which there was enough in the magazines for two years' consumption.
From History of The Reign of Philip The Second King of Spain Volume The Third and Biographical & Critical Miscellanies by Prescott, William Hickling
We rose early & assembled on the Green, & met there with the rest of the victualing Party.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Meanwhile he gave orders for so much rice and maize to be collected thereabouts, as was necessary for victualing his ships.
From Great Pirate Stories by French, Joseph Lewis
Traitors are forever worming their way into such societies, and the management exercises typical British discretion in selecting the devotees for its illegal victualing organisation.
From Europe After 8:15 by Benton, Thomas H.
The women pressed close to the water's edge; with eyes fixed upon the ships, they awaited anxiously the issue of the combat upon which depended the victualing of their city.
From The Pocket Bible or Christian the Printer A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by Sue, Eug?ne
In the victualing department there were 23 women employed.
From Loss of the Steamship 'Titanic' by Government, British
Project leaders said it was "an exciting opportunity to examine part of an early victualling yard".
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2022
The following year complaints began to trickle in from victualling yards in the UK and from British seamen around the world that other parts of animals were being found in canned meat.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2013
Vast quantities of corn, rice, and maize were collected here for victualling the ships.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume II (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Thornbury, Walter
The mess caterer is the officer selected to superintend the victualling department, as the wine caterer does the liquid refreshments.
From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 1 by Whymper, Frederick
His license was granted October 1, 1638, “to keep a victualling on Duxburrow side.”
From Stage-coach and Tavern Days by Earle, Alice Morse
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.
