Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A substance that gives nourishment; food.
- n. Insipid intellectual nourishment: "TV . . . gobbled up comedy material and spat it out as pabulum” ( Richard Corliss).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Food, in the widest sense; aliment; nutriment; that which nourishes an animal or vegetable organism; by extension, that which nourishes or supports any physical process, as fuel for a fire.
- n. Hence, food for thought; intellectual or spiritual nourishment or support.
Wiktionary
- n. food or fodder, particularly that taken in by plants or animals.
- n. material that feeds a fire.
- n. food for thought.
- n. bland intellectual fare; an undemanding diet of words
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The means of nutriment to animals or plants; food; nourishment.
- n. That which feeds or sustains, such as fuel for a fire that upon which the mind or soul is nourished; intellectual sustenance.
- n. Trite or simplistic writing, sentiments, etc.; pablum{3}.
WordNet 3.0
- n. insipid intellectual nourishment
- n. any substance that can be used as food
Etymologies
- Latin pābulum; see pā- in Indo-European roots. Sense 2, by confusion with pablum.
Examples
“They supposed that the air contained a principle proper for the support and nourishment of life, which they called pabulum vitae.”
Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease
“The "pabulum" to which Christie was referring: O'Malley's comments on a recent radio show in which he said Christie's brand of pension reform showed that the New Jersey Republican "delights in being abusive towards public employees.”
The Washington Post: A day later, O'Malley hits back against N.J.'s Christie
“An architect of the White House's earlier policies dismissed Mr. Bellinger's remarks as "pabulum" from a State Department that is too solicitous of international institutions.”
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Accepts International Criminal Court
“Two weeks ago, the EPA had to omit the entire global-warming section from its "Draft Report on the Environment," a 30-year statistical snapshot of the U.S. environment, after the administration tried to replace solid findings with "pabulum," according to outgoing EPA administrator Christie Whitman.”
“Family fare with good characters that bounce between pabulum and tears?”
The Huffington Post: Lorraine Devon Wilke: How The Killing Is Saving Television
“Though its once-scandalous content nowadays can't compete with the pabulum of reality TV, the production, in the hands of Daavid and his talented cast, successfully examines a chain reaction that begins with five rooms of furniture being hauled away for non-payment.”
“Whether what my wife – who likewise had had no exposure to television for years before I met her – and I watched was better or worse than the average that was on offer to viewers, we could not say; but it seemed terrible pabulum to us, having approximately the same effect on our consciousness as a food-mixer on vegetables.”
“NPR has discredited itself as a forum for free speech and a protection of the First Amendment rights of all and has solidified itself as the purveyor of politically correct pabulum and protector of views that lean left.”
The Huffington Post: NPR's Juan Williams Firing Prompts Conservative Backlash
“Just as commercial pabulum reduces all of us the creator, the "producer," the viewer to the status of consumer slaves, so dramatic art raises the creators and the viewers to the status of communicants.”
“She also lampoons the pabulum of business motivational books and the pieties of CEO memoirs in a book that is consistently funny in its stomach-turning way.”
The Wall Street Journal: From Medea on the Bayou to Shenanigans in the Office
Lists
‘pabulum’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
reesetee Same thing, different spelling. May 14, 2010
chained_bear Similar to pablum? May 11, 2010