Dictionary
feed
Pronunciation: (fēd), [key]
—v., fed, feed•ing,
—n.
—
v.t.
1. to give food to; supply with nourishment:
to feed a child.
2. to yield or serve as food for:
This land has fed 10 generations.
3. to provide as food.
4. to furnish for consumption.
5. to satisfy; minister to; gratify:
Poetry feeds the imagination.
6. to supply for maintenance or operation, as to a machine:
to feed paper into a photocopier.
7. to provide with the necessary materials for development, maintenance, or operation:
to feed a printing press with paper.
8. to use (land) as pasture.
9. Theat. Informal.
a. to supply (an actor, esp. a comedian) with lines or action, the responses to which are expected to elicit laughter.
b. to provide cues to (an actor).
c. Chiefly Brit.to prompt:
Stand in the wings and feed them their lines.
10. Radio and Television.to distribute (a local broadcast) via satellite or network.
—
v.i.
1. (esp. of animals) to take food; eat:
cows feeding in a meadow; to feed well.
2. to be nourished or gratified; subsist:
to feed on grass; to feed on thoughts of revenge.
3. chain feed, to pass (work) successively into a machine in such a manner that each new piece is held in place by or connected to the one before.
—
n.
1. food, esp. for farm animals, as cattle, horses or chickens.
2. an allowance, portion, or supply of such food.
3. Informal.a meal, esp. a lavish one.
4. the act of feeding.
5. the act or process of feeding a furnace, machine, etc.
6. the material, or the amount of it, so fed or supplied.
7. a feeding mechanism.
8. Elect.feeder (def. 10).
9. Theat. Informal.
a. a line spoken by one actor, the response to which by another actor is expected to cause laughter.
b. an actor, esp. a straight man, who provides such lines.
10. a local television broadcast distributed by satellite or network to a much wider audience, esp. nationwide or international.
11. off one's feed, Slang.
a. reluctant to eat; without appetite.
b. dejected; sad.
c. not well; ill.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
