feed

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To give food to; supply with nourishment: feed the children.
2. v. To provide as food or nourishment: fed fish to the cat.
3. v. To serve as food for: The turkey is large enough to feed a dozen.
4. v. To produce food for: The valley feeds an entire county.
5. v. To provide for consumption, utilization, or operation: feed logs to a fire; feed data into a computer.
6. v. To supply with something essential for growth, maintenance, or operation: Melting snow feeds the reservoirs.
7. v. To distribute (a local radio or television broadcast) to a larger audience or group of receivers by way of a network or satellite.
8. v. To minister to; gratify: fed their appetite for the morbid.
9. v. To support or promote; encourage: His unexplained absences fed our suspicions.
10. v. To supply as a cue: feed lines to an actor.
11. v. Sports To pass a ball or puck to (a teammate), especially to set up a scoring chance.
12. v. To eat: pigs feeding at a trough.
13. v. To be nourished or supported: an ego that feeds on flattery.
14. v. To move steadily, as into a machine for processing.
15. v. To be channeled; flow: This road feeds into the freeway.
16. n. Food for animals or birds.
17. n. The amount of such food given at one time.
18. n. Informal A meal, especially a large one.
19. n. The act of eating.
20. n. Material or an amount of material supplied, as to a machine or furnace.
21. n. The act of supplying such material.
22. n. An apparatus that supplies material to a machine.
23. n. The aperture through which such material enters a machine.
24. n. The transmission or conveyance of a local radio or television program, as by satellite, on the Internet, or by broadcast over a network of stations.
25. n. A program or signal so transmitted or conveyed.
26. n. Sports A pass of a ball or puck, especially to set up a scoring chance.
27. idiom. off (one's) feed Suffering a lack of appetite; sick: The dog is off its feed this week.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To give food to; supply with nourishment.
2. To supply; fill the requirements of; furnish material to for consumption, use, or means of operation; provide with whatever is necessary to the development, maintenance, or working of: as, canals are fed by streams and ponds; to feed a fire, a steam-engine, or a threshing-machine; to feed a lathe (by applying to the chisel the object to be turned); vanity is fed by flattery.
3. To graze; cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
4. To supply for food, consumption, or operation: as, to feed out beets to cattle; to feed water to an engine; to feed work (something to be operated on) to a lathe or other machine.
5. To entertain; amuse. Synonyms To nourish, cherish, sustain, support.
6. To take food; eat.
7. To subsist; use something for sustenance or support: with on or upon.
8. To grow fat.
9. n. Food, properly for domestic or other animals; that which is eaten by a domestic animal; provender; fodder.
10. n. Pasture-ground: grazing-land.
11. n. A meal, or the act of eating.
12. n. A certain allowance of provender given: as, a feed of corn or oats.
13. n. In mech.:
14. n. The motion or advance of any material which is being fed to a machine, as of cloth to the needle of a sewing-machine.
15. n. The material upon which a machine operates, as the grain running into a grinding-mill.
16. n. The advance of a cutting-tool, as the cutter of a planer, or the chisel of a lathe, upon or into the material to be cut.
17. n. Same as food, n., 4.
18. n. The amount of water needed in a canal-lock to allow of the passage of a boat.
19. n. In stone-sawing, sand and water employed to assist the saw-blade in cutting.
20. n. Synonyms Feed, Food, Fodder, Provender, Forage. Feed for animals, especially animals kept for work or fattening for the market; food for human beings and the smaller animals, household pets, etc.; fodder, dry or green feed for animals, but not pasturage; provender, dry feed. Forage is rarely used except for fodder furnished for horses in an army, generally by foraging. Food is also a general word for that which supplies nourishment to any organized body.
21. In founding, to supply extra metal to (a thick, heavy casting) while it is setting. This is done by having a shrink-head or riser over the thick portion of the casting and keeping communication open between this and the metal in the mold by working a feeding-rod up and down until the metal sets. The object of doing this is to prevent the formation of shrinkage-holes in the casting by the contraction of the metal as it cools, this process beginning from outside and leaving interior holes unless the latter are filled.

Wiktionary

1. v. Simple past tense and past participle of fee.
2. v. transitive To give (someone or something) food to eat, nurture.
3. v. intransitive To eat (usually of animals).
4. v. transitive To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.
5. v. transitive To give to a machine to be processed.
6. v. sports, transitive To pass to.
7. n. uncountable Food given to (especially herbivorous) animals.
8. n. Something supplied continuously; as, a satellite feed.
9. n. countable A gathering to eat, especially in quantity
10. n. Internet Encapsulated online content, such as news or a blog, that can be subscribed to.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of.
2. v. To satisfy; gratify or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire.
3. v. To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted
4. v. To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard.
5. v. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
6. v. To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption
7. v. To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine.
8. v. To produce progressive operation upon or with (as in wood and metal working machines, so that the work moves to the cutting tool, or the tool to the work).
9. v. To take food; to eat.
10. v. To subject by eating; to satisfy the appetite; to feed one's self (upon something); to prey; -- with on or upon.
11. v. To be nourished, strengthened, or satisfied, as if by food.
12. v. To place cattle to feed; to pasture; to graze.
13. n. That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole.
14. n. A grazing or pasture ground.
15. n. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal.
16. n. rare A meal, or the act of eating.
17. n. The water supplied to steam boilers.
18. n. The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work.
19. n. The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones.
20. n. The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. support or promote
2. v. provide as food
3. v. profit from in an exploitatory manner
4. v. move along, of liquids
5. v. take in food; used of animals only
6. v. give food to
7. v. provide with fertilizers or add nutrients to
8. v. introduce continuously
9. v. feed into; supply.
10. v. serve as food for; be the food for
11. n. food for domestic livestock
12. v. gratify.