FEED, v.t. pret. and pp. [See Father.]

Retained by a fee.

1. Food; that which is eaten; pasture; fodder; applied to that which it eaten by beasts, not to the food of men. The hills of our country furnish the best feed for sheep.
2. Meal, or act of eating. For such pleasure till that hour / At feed or fountain never bad I found. Milton.

1. To take food; to eat. Shak.
2. To subsist by eating; to prey. Some birds feed on seeds and berries, others on flesh.
3. To pasture; to graze; to place cattle to feed. Ex. xxii.
4. To grow fat. Johnson.

1. To give food to; as, to feed an infant; to feed horses and oxen.
2. To supply with provisions. We have flour and meat enough to feed the army a month.
3. To supply; to furnish with any thing of which there is constant consumption, waste or use. Springs feed ponds, lakes and rivers; ponds and streams feed canals. Mills are fed from hoppers.
4. 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 feed your mowing lands. Mortimer.
5. To nourish; to cherish; to supply with nutriment; as, to a feed hope or expectation; to feed vanity.
6. To keep in hope or expectation; as, to feed one with hope.
7. To supply fuel; as, to feed a fire.
8. To delight; to supply with something desirable; to entertain; as, to feed the eye with the beauties of a landscape.
9. To give food or fodder for fattening; to fatten. The old county of Hampshire, in Massachusetts, feeds a great number of cattle for slaughter.
10. To supply with food, and to lead, guard and protect; a scriptural sense. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. Is. xl.

1. To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of.
   
   

   If thine enemy hunger, feed him. Rom. xii. 20.

   Unreasonable creatures feed their young. Shak.

2. To take food; to eat.
   
   

   Her kid . . . which I afterwards killed because it would not feed. De Foe.

3. That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep.
4. To satisfy; gratify or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire.
   
   

   I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. Shak.

   Feeding him with the hope of liberty. Knolles.

5. To subject by eating; to satisfy the appetite; to feed one's self (upon something); to prey; -- with on or upon.
   
   

   Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. Shak.

6. A grazing or pasture ground.
   
   
   Shak.
7. To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal.
8. To be nourished, strengthened, or satisfied, as if by food.
   
   
   "He feeds upon the cooling shade." Spenser.
9. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.
10. To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard.
    
    

    Thou shalt feed my people Israel. 2 Sam. v. 2.

    Mightiest powers by deepest calms are fed. B. Cornwall.

11. To place cattle to feed; to pasture; to graze.
    
    

    If a man . . . shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field. Ex. xxii. 5.

12. A meal, or the act of eating.
    
    
    [R.]

    For such pleasure till that hour
    At feed or fountain never had I found. Milton.

13. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle; as, if grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.
    
    

    Once in three years feed your mowing lands. Mortimer.

14. The water supplied to steam boilers.
15. To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to a steam boiler.
16. 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.
    
    
    (b)
17. To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing press.
    
    
    (b)