4. 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. 5. 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. 6. 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.
7. (Mach.) (a) To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing
press. (b) 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).
Feed
(Feed), v. i.
1. To take food; to eat.
Her kid . . . which I afterwards killed because it would not feed.
De Foe. 2. 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. 3. To be nourished, strengthened, or satisfied, as if by food. "He feeds upon the cooling shade." Spenser.
4. 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. Feed
(Feed) n.
1. That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed
for sheep.
2. A grazing or pasture ground. Shak.
3. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.
4. A meal, or the act of eating. [R.]
For such pleasure till that hour
At feed or fountain never had I found.
Milton. 5. The water supplied to steam boilers.
6. (Mach.) (a) 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) The supply of material to a
machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones. (c) The mechanism
by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion.
