Etymology From Middle English feden, from Old English fēdan (“to feed”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with West Frisian fiede (“to nourish, feed”), Dutch voeden (“to feed”), Danish føde (“to bring forth, feed”), Swedish föda (“to bring forth, feed”), Icelandic fæða (“to feed”), and more distantly with Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb) through Indo-European. More at food, fodder.
If thine enemy hunger, feed him.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:20:
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To eat (usually of animals).
Spiders feed on gnats and flies.
“The treasurer was of the same opinion: he showed to what straits his majesty’s revenue was reduced, by the charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow insupportable; that the secretary’s expedient of putting out your eyes, was so far from being a remedy against this evil, that it would probably increase it, as is manifest from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowls, after which they fed the faster, and grew sooner fat;[...]1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
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But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge,[…].1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
If we have time we might go on to Brighton, feed at the 'Ship,' and come back in the cool.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados:
While feeding, the basking shark swims at about two knots per hour, and this enables it to eat and breathe in the same motion.1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 89:
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To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.
Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.
Feed the fish to the dolphins.
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DR SIMEON: I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to.2012 December 25 (airdate), Steven Moffat, The Snowmen (Doctor Who)
A young female farm worker was fed alive to a herd of pigs after allegedly being brutally raped and beaten by a colleague with a grudge against her father.2024 November 28, Taryn Kaur Pedler & Will Stewart, “Farm murder horror as girl, 17, is fed to pigs while still ALIVE 'after being beaten and raped by worker who held a grudge against her father'”, in dailymail.com:
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To give to a machine to be processed.
Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.
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To supply (a machine) with something to be processed.
We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.
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Figuratively To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).
If I can catch him once upon the hip, / I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
feeding him with the hope of liberty1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:
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To supply with something.
Springs feed ponds with water.
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed1817 (published 11 January 1818), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Sonnet. Ozymandias.”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume III, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 67:
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To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.
Once in three years, or every other year, feed your mowing-lands.1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
Morrison then played a pivotal role in West Brom's equaliser, powering through the middle and feeding Tchoyi, whose low, teasing right-wing cross was poked in by Thomas at the far post2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1-3 Blackburn”, in BBC:
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonology, SciencesOf a phonological rule To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule).
Nasalization feeds raising.
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences, SyntaxOf a syntactic rule To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).
This orthodox analysis […] leads to the conclusion that […] Subject–Auxiliary Inversion (SAI) is fed by the contraction operation.1983, Arnold M. Zwicky, Geoffrey K. Pullum, “Cliticization vs. Inflection: English N'T”, in Language, volume 59, number 3, →JSTOR, page 506:
Etymology From Middle English fede, fed, from the verb (see above). Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse fœða (“nourishment, food”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), whence also Old English fēdan (“to feed”).
184?, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor One proposed going to Hungerford-market to do a feed on decayed shrimps or other offal laying about the market; another proposed going to Covent-garden to do a 'tightener' of rotten oranges, to which I was humorously invited; […]
"There won't be any more blessed concerts for a million years or so; there won't be any Royal Academy of Arts, and no nice little feeds at restaurants."1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 257:
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‘Still hungry! Well, we’ll see if Larry can find you a feed of beef when the billy’s boiled.’1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 111:
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A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities.
They held a crab feed on the beach.
› online content presented sequentially:
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Internet antichronological sequence of posts or articles from a single source, especially as consumable on a platform other as originally published.
Syndication or aggregation
I've subscribed to the feeds of my favourite blogs, so I can find out when new posts are added without having to visit those sites.
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Internet, Often, After a possessive determiner content intended for consumption by scrolling or swiping, especially as a home page and from multiple publishers followed or algorithmically curated
Refresh the top of your various “feeds” — the running column of content on some versions of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — and you will see the latest news at the top. The further back you scroll, the older the material gets.2016 March 15, Mike Isaac, “Instagram May Change Your Feed, Personalizing It With an Algorithm”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
I use Native, that’s what other Native people on Facebook use. I have 660 friends. Tons of Native friends in my feed. Most of my friends, though, are people I don’t know, who’d happily friended me upon request.2018, Tommy Orange, “Edwin Black”, in There There, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 69:
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Despite spending years studying these toxic dynamics and the better part of a month watching them up close in strangers’ feeds, I was still, like so many, surprised to see it all reflected at the ballot box. We shouldn’t have been surprised; our divisions have been in front of our faces and inside our feeds this whole time.2020 November 24, Charlie Warzel, “What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
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A straight man who delivers lines to the comedian during a performance.
Don Ward is often described as a former comic, having some experience in this area as a young man, acting as a feed for the comic actor David Lodge at Parkins Holiday Camp in Jersey […]2020, Oliver Double, Alternative Comedy: 1979 and the Reinvention of British Stand-Up, page 38: