victual
Americannoun
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victuals, food supplies; provisions.
-
food or provisions for human beings.
verb (used with object)
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victuals,
present (3rd person singular)
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victualed,
past participle, past
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victualled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
victualing,
present participle
-
victualling
present participle (especially British)
verb (used without object)
-
victuals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
victualed,
past participle, past
-
victualled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
victualing,
present participle
-
victualling
present participle (especially British)
-
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
-
victualsimple
-
victualssimple
-
have victualedperfect
-
have victualledperfect
-
has victualedperfect
-
has victualledperfect
-
am victualingprogressive
-
am victuallingprogressive
-
are victualingprogressive
-
are victuallingprogressive
-
is victualingprogressive
-
is victuallingprogressive
-
have been victualingperfect progressive
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have been victuallingperfect progressive
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has been victualingperfect progressive
-
has been victuallingperfect progressive
Past
-
victualedsimple
-
victualledsimple
-
had victualedperfect
-
had victualledperfect
-
was victualingprogressive
-
was victuallingprogressive
-
were victualingprogressive
-
were victuallingprogressive
-
had been victualingperfect progressive
-
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
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
In 1592, Hideyoshi, founder of the navy, used his ships to land troops in Korea, to victual their beachheads.
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
Poor victual shall ye find in me, so small and slight am I; and if ye kill so frail a thing, in no wise shall your worship be increased.
From Tales from the Old French by Various
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
“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
Under the influence of these miscellaneous victuals, his thinking takes a hard left, and he winds up leading the dowager duchess down the following unexpected cultural byway:
From Slate ● Nov. 14, 2017
The rebel blockade deprived the town of victuals.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. 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
"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
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
When the rebels reached Changsha, therefore, they found the gates closed, the walls manned, and the town victualed for a siege.
From China by Demetrius Charles Boulger
The caravel was well victualled and it was manned by men ready for toils, and Alvaro Fernandez was young in years and audacious.
From The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea Vol. II by Gomes Eannes de Zurara
Of these the consumption of victualling stores is alone constant, being determined by the number of men to be victualled from day to day.
From Naval Warfare by James R. Thursfield
We rose early on the following morning, and profiting by the advice of that wisest of travellers, Captain Dalgetty, victualled for an indefinite period.
From Charles Lever, His Life in His Letters, Vol. I by Edmund Downey
They also landed at Muemeluna and victualled, the Spaniards having strong entrenchments, but making little resistance.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume III (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Walter Thornbury
Then it was, in Cornish phrase, “busy all” to get the yacht overhauled and well victualled.
From A Singer from the Sea by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
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 Joseph Lewis French
Nevertheless, this latter feat of arms gladdened tremulous Washington, and among the exploits was cited to the President the desperate victualing of General Thomas' exhausted troops by General Garfield.
From The Lincoln Story Book A Judicious Collection of the Best Stories and Anecdotes of the Great President, Many Appearing Here for the First Time in Book Form by Henry Llewellyn Williams
He had been endeavoring, ineffectually, to arrange for an issue of bonds, redeemable at the close of the war, in order to facilitate the victualing of the troops.
From The Downfall by E. P. Robins
The exemption of the sick from these penalties was abolished by James I., and justices were authorized to enter victualing houses and search and forfeit the meat found there.
From Mother Earth, Vol. 1 No. 3, May 1906 Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature by Emma Goldman
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
To the north is the Royal Clarence victualling yard, with brewery, cooperage, powder magazines, biscuit-making establishment, and storehouses for various kinds of provisions for the royal navy.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various
The tenth may fairly be styled the "angel of the victualling department."
From Ancient Faiths And Modern A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities by Thomas Inman
Having completed their victualling, and furnished themselves with the necessary supply of naval stores, our navigators sailed out of the bay on the 9th of May.
From Narrative of the Voyages Round the World, Performed by Captain James Cook : with an Account of His Life During the Previous and Intervening Periods by Andrew Kippis
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