Fed Feed Food Fiːd Baby Put Cattle Give

• have you fed the cat yet?
• the baby can't feed itself yet (= can't put food into its own mouth).
• the cattle are fed (on) barley.
• the barley is fed to the cattle.

feed

1. to give food to a person or an animal
• Have you fed the cat yet?
• The baby can't feed itself yet (= can't put food into its own mouth).
• The cattle are fed (on) barley.
• The barley is fed to the cattle.
2. to eat food
• see also feed on/off something
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/feed-on
• Slugs and snails feed at night.
3. to provide food for a family or group of people
• They have a large family to feed.
• There's enough here to feed an army.
4. to give a plant a special substance to make it grow
• Feed the plants once a week.
5. to give advice, information, etc. to somebody/something
• We are constantly fed gossip and speculation by the media.
• Gossip and speculation are constantly fed to us by the media.
6. to supply something to somebody/something
• The lake is fed by a river.
• The electricity line is fed with power through an underground cable.
• Power is fed into the electricity line through an underground cable.
7. to put or push something into or through a machine
• He fed the meter with coins.
• He fed coins into the meter.
• The information was fed into the data store.
• The fabric is fed through the machine.
8. to satisfy a need, desire, etc. and keep it strong
• For drug addicts, the need to feed the addiction takes priority over everything else.
9. to harm somebody who has helped you or supported you
10. to eat a lot of food or too much food

Extra Examples

• Egrets and a solitary grey heron were busily feeding.
• Have they been feeding you well?
• He could no longer afford to feed his family.
• He saw the new baby as just another mouth to feed.
• How can we feed a hungry world?
• Let us discipline ourselves so as to help feed a hungry world.
• Most of the crop is fed to the cattle.
• Receptors constantly feed information into the system.
• She could barely feed and clothe herself.
• She fed the children on baked beans and fish fingers.
• She fed the children on junk food.
• The animals are fed with hay and grass.
• The bears feed voraciously in summer and store energy as fat.
• The children were poorly fed.
• The data is fed directly into a computer.
• The media were being fed with accusations and lies.
• The seals feed mainly on fish and squid.
• This feeds the paper through to the printer.
• Feed the kids and make sure they’re in bed by nine.
• My grandmother always feeds me well.
• The baby can’t feed herself yet.
• There’s enough here to feed an army.
• They’ve got a large family to feed.

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they feed
• he / she / it feeds
• past simple fed
• past participle fed
• -ing form feeding

Word Origin

• Old English fēdan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch voeden and food.