Feeder

[f. as prec. + -ER¹.] One who or that which feeds.

  1.  One who feeds or supplies food to (a person or animal); formerly often in contemptuous use, one who maintains (a parasite, a spy, etc.).

1579.  Twyne, Phisicke agst. Fortune, I. lxiv. 88 b. Often calling his Feeder by his name, and the better to perswade hym, flatteryng hym with [etc.].

1616.  Rich Cabinet, 129–30. The horsse remembers his rider, especially his feeder.

1653.  Milton, Hirelings, Wks. (1851), 387. Idleness, with fulnes of Bread, begat pride and perpetual contention with thir Feeders the despis’d Laity.

1683.  Loyal Observator, 11. His feeders … have … put him upon another jobb.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XIV. 461.

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. xv. Your Playing-up toady, who, unconscious to its feeder, is always playing up to its feeder’s weaknesses.

1834.  Brit. Husb., I. viii. 203. The feeder should be provided with an elastic ramrod covered with a polished head at the end; which, if introduced into the animal’s throat, the obstruction may be very easily pushed down into his stomach.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew. (1866), I. x. 229. ‘Yes! I am Hereward,’ he almost shouted; ‘the Berserker, the brain-hewer, the land-thief, the sea-thief, the feeder of wolf and raven—Aoi!’

1868.  Geo. Eliot, Sp. Gipsy, 269.

  b.  Sport. A trainer (of cocks or horses). ? Obs.

1781.  P. Beckford, Hunting, 53. I have inquired of my feeder, who is a very good one, (and has had more experience in these matters than any one you perhaps may get) how he mixes up his meat.

1810.  Sporting Mag., XXXVI. May, 55/1. The long main between the gentlemen of Staffordshire, Gosling, feeder, and the gentlemen of Lancashire, Gilliver, feeder, was won by the former, two a-head in the mains, and ten in the byes.

  c.  transf. and fig.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. v. 66. The Tutor and the Feeder of my Riots.

1616.  Hayward, Sanct. Troub. Soul, I. ii. (1620), 30. All the comforts thereof are not onely no remedies of griefe, but feeders thereof with sweet poison.

1634.  M. Sandys, Prudence, 176. It [flattery] is the poysoning of Mans Vnderstanding, the Feeder of humors, the whole Volume of it is bound up in the Vellome Cover of Deceit.

1824.  Lamb, Elia, II., Blakesmoor in H——shire. The solitude of childhood … is the feeder of love.

1849.  The Florist, 319. Numerous fibrous roots … act as feeders.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 291. Feeders, in pilot slang, are the passing spurts of rain which feed a gale.

1887.  Garnsey, trans. De Bary’s Fungi, 358. The plant or animal on which a parasite lives is termed its host or feeder.

  2.  One who or that which eats or takes food; an eater; usually with adj. prefixed, as large, quick, etc. Also, feeder upon (a specified food).

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 106.

1612.  Woodall, The Surgeons Mate, Wks. (1653), 392. He had a full corpulent body, and was a very large feeder; so that to such a patient, so fiercely visited, I cannot conceive how any amputation, of what sort soever, could have succoured to have saved his life.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. vi. 98. The missell thrush, or feeder upon misseltoe.

1655.  Walton, Angler (ed. 2), 277. He [the barbel] is a curious feeder.

1718.  Rowe, trans. Lucan, 302.

1733.  Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. vii. § 2 (1734), 186. No plentiful and full Feeder was ever opened, but he was found with some gross Fault in his Liver.

1798.  R. Parkinson, Experienced Farmer, I. 175. They [Downs Sheep] are … quick feeders.

1847.  F. Parkman, Oregon Trail, xxv. (1872), 352. The carcass was completely hollowed out by these voracious feeders.

1885.  Clodd, Myths & Dr., II. iv. 165. The Australians, despite the scarcity of large animals for food supply, rarely ate the flesh of man, whilst the New Zealanders, who rank far above them, and had not the like excuse, were systematic feeders on human flesh.

  b.  One who eats at another’s expense; a person dependent upon another for his food; a servant.

1600.  Shaks., As You Like It, II. iv. 99.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Nice Valour, III. i. Now servants he has kept, lusty tall feeders.

  c.  transf. Of a plant; also of a flame.

1799.  J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 133. The latter [potato] being a more tender feeder.

1878.  Browning, Poets Croisic, i.

1882.  The Garden, 4 Feb., 87/3. The Fig when in growth is a gross feeder, and soon resents a falling off in quantity of quality.

  d.  pl. Cattle for feeding off or fattening.

1796.  W. Marshall, Midland Counties, Gloss., Feeders … fatting cattle.

1881.  Chicago Times, 1 June. Stockers and feeders were dull.

  e.  dial. One who grows abnormally fat.

1886.  S. W. Linc. Gloss., The whole family of them are feeders.

  3.  An instrument, organ, or appliance for feeding (senses 1 and 2): a. a spoon (slang); a child’s feeding bottle; a bib; b. Entom. one of the organs composing the mouth-parts.

  a.  1811.  Lexicon Balatronicum, Feeder. A spoon. To nab the feeder; to steal a spoon.

1821.  D. Haggart, Life (ed. 2), 69. I do not remember what became of the feeders, as I disposed of them when I was very lushy. Ibid., 73. I bought two wedge table-feeders, and a small dross scout, for a few bobs, which I knew had been geached from the house of Mrs Campbell, in Thistle Street.

1886.  S. W. Linc. Gloss., Feeder, a child’s bib; also a feeding-bottle, or cup with a lip.

  b.  1826.  Kirby & Spence, Introd. Entom., IV. 308. Feeders retracted (Trophi retracti) when in a perfect mouth the Trophi are not capable of being much pushed out or drawn in. Feeders retractile, when … the Trophi can be considerably pushed forth or drawn in.

  4.  One who attends to the feeding of a flock; a herdsman, shepherd. ? Obs.

1611.  Bible, Gen. iv. 2. Abel was a keeper [margin feeder] of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

1710.  Philips, Pastorals, v. 9.

1807.  G. Chalmers, Caledonia, I. II. vi. 309. They had only advanced from the first to the second stage of society, from being hunters, to being feeders of flocks.

  b.  fig.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 2961. Is þis noȝt Philip son þe firs · þe fedare of grece?

1413.  Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. xxix. (1859), 62. O thou wretchyd herd and fals feder of the hows Israel, that arte clothed with gold, and sette in huge arraye.

c. 1430.  Life St. Kath. (1884), 98. He ys my God my louer and my feder.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxxi. (1611), 438. They are commanded to be Patterns of Holiness, Leaders, Feeders, Supervisors amongst their own.

1659.  Torriano, Pastôre … a Pastor or a Preacher, as it were a Feeder of souls.

  5.  One who feeds up or fattens (an animal), esp. one whose business it is to feed cattle for slaughter.

c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. iv. (1869), 2. A foulere oþer a feedere of briddes.

1669.  J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 176. In fatting of Geese … The Jews … are esteem’d the skillfullest Feeders that be.

1893.  Daily News, 15 Feb., 5/8. The trade would become paralysed and both feeders and labourers suffer immensely.

  † b.  humorously. A crammer, tutor. Obs.

1766.  Goldsm., Vic. W., vii. Mr. Thornhill came with … his chaplain and feeder.

1787.  Gentl. Mag., LVII. 869/2. A Feeder, by which is meant a person who … crams into the head of a candidate for a degree certain ideas which [etc.].

[1848.  Dickens, Dombey. Mr. Feeder, B.A.]

  6.  A stream which flows into another body of water; a tributary; also attrib., as feeder-stream.

1795.  J. Phillips, Hist. Inland Navigation, Addenda, 94. To make navigable the cut or feeder from the town of Wendover, to join the canal at Bulbourne. Ibid., 97. No water to be taken from the feeders of the river Witham.

1800.  Mrs. Hervey, The Mourtray Family, IV. 249. An immense torrent … becoming one of the feeders of the Lake.

1826.  J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 48. Just as I was clearing the feeder-stream, not less than five yards across, up springs a red-deer.

1832.  Act 2–3 Will. IV., c. 65 § 5. The point at which a burn or feeder joins a loch.

1878.  Huxley, Physiography, 37. The Kennet, which is one of the main feeders of the Thames, receives its water chiefly from the chalk downs near Hungerford and Marlborough.

  transf. and fig.  1817.  J. Scott, Paris Revisited (ed. 4), 12. The downfall of great states has usually been produced by a disregard of the sources of alienation, and the feeders of discontent.

1861.  Max Müller, Sc. Lang., ii. 49. Dialects have always been the feeders rather than the channels of a literary language.

1868.  J. H. Blunt, Ref. Ch. Eng., I. 71. As a feeder to this great college, Wolsey founded another.

1882.  Daily Tel., 8 Nov., 5/7. It is proposed to construct lines of a less substantial character, to act as feeders to the main lines.

1893.  Times, 27 April, 9/5. The Post office actually increases the business of the banks by acting as a feeder.

  b.  spec. ‘A water course which supplies a canal or reservoir by gravitation or natural flow’ (W.).

1825.  Beverley Lighting Act, ii. 11. Canal, aqueduct, feeder, pond.

1837.  Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 201. The feeder is constructed so as to promote a current in its waters to the head of the reservoir.

1866.  Cornhill Mag., March, 367. Another sweet-water canal, which is to be an essential feeder of the principal channel.

  c.  In wider sense: A centre or source of supply. In quots. fig.

1817.  Coleridge, Lay Serm., 377. Our religious opinions, out of which … all our other opinions flow, as from their spring-head and perpetual feeder.

1872.  O. W. Holmes, Poet. Breakf-t., iii. (1891), 80. The sources from which a man fills his mind,—his feeders, as you call them.

  attrib.  1892.  Pall Mall G., 26 Sept., 5/1. Looking down … from the edge of the great glacier-feeder basin.

  7.  Mining. a. A smaller lode falling into the main lode or vein.

1728.  Nicholls, in Phil. Trans., XXXV. 403. Small Branches opening into them in all Directions; which are by the Miners term’d, the Feeders of the Load.

1805.  Mushet, ibid., XCV. 165. Towards the feeder it seemed loose and crumbly.

1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 610. Feeder—A spur falling into a reef increasing or apparently increasing its size and richness.

  b.  An underground spring or runner of water.

1702.  T. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 35. When once you know how large your feeder or spring is, it is very easy to know what sized engine, or what number of engines will do your business.

1789.  Brand, Hist. Newcastle, II. 679. By the wetness of the rods they know when any feeder of water is pricked.

1892.  Daily News, 16 March, 5/7. Abnormally heavy feeders of water.

  c.  A stream of gas escaping through a fissure in the ground; a blower.

1881.  in Raymond, Mining Gloss.

1883.  in Gresley, Coalmining Terms, 104.

  8.  One who or that which supplies material for consumption or elaboration.

  a.  One who ‘feeds’ material to a machine.

1676.  Beal, in Phil. Trans., XI. 584. By this … may two workmen, and one feeder, grind 20 bushels of Apples in an hour.

1835.  Ure, Philos. Manuf., 155. The person who attends this machine … is called the feeder.

1886.  Pall Mall G., 18 June, 5/1. On a raised platform stands the feeder, with his spade, and it is his duty to shovel the quartz into the hopper.

1888.  Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Feeder.—The lad who lays on the sheets in a printing machine.

  b.  The player who tosses the ball to the batsman (in ‘Rounders’ and similar games). Hence, the name of a particular game resembling rounders.

1844.  Boy’s Treasury, 17. The players next toss up for the office of feeder. Ibid., 18. This game [Rounders] differs from feeder only in the following particulars.

1875.  ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, III. I. iv. § 1. 686. The feeder is allowed to feign a toss of the ball, in the hope of touching some one of the players, who are very apt to leave their bases before the hit, in the hope of scorning an extra one by the manœuvre.

  c.  An apparatus or a portion of an apparatus, often in the form of a hopper, into which the material to be treated is placed in order to be supplied to the machine in regulated quantities.

1669.  J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 51. Observe whether it will hold out … and accordingly proceed and rectifie the Feeder.

1823.  J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 79. The feeder, which coming from an air-tight vessel … full of oil, it drops slowly into the centre of the iron vessel.

1870.  Public Opinion, 16 July, 81. The new feeder is a single-acting plunger pump.

1892.  P. Benjamin, Mod. Mech., 859. Automatic … feeder … to feed the grain easily.

  d.  The lower chamber in an organ bellows which supplies the upper chamber or reservoir with wind.

1852.  Seidel, Organ, 36. The lower one, called the feeder (because it feeds or supplies the upper one with wind), when pressed down, produces the wind and leads it immediately to the upper one, which must of course rise.

1870.  Hopkins & Rimbault, Organ, 20.

  e.  Naut. A reserved compartment between decks for filling up the vacancy in the hold caused by the settling down of grain, etc.

1890.  Daily News, 10 Dec., 5/8. The cargo was secured in the usual way … seven large feeders in the ’tween-decks.

  9.  Metal-casting. a. (See quot. 1858.) Also attrib., as feeder-head. b. ‘The opening made in a foundry mould for the introduction of the feed rod’ (Lockwood).

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Feeder … a large head or supply of fluid iron to a runner or mould in heavy castings.

1892.  Lockwood’s Dict. Mech. Engin. Terms, 136. Feeder head … a mass of metal which has been utilised for feeding a mould.

  10.  Electrical Engineering. a. A wire bearing a subsidiary current. b. A branch-wire to supply a house, etc.

1892.  Electrical Engineer, 16 Sept., 287/2. The Northampton Electric Light and Power Company have equal weights of distributing mains and feeders.

  11.  Theatrical. (See quot.)

1886.  Stage Gossip, 70. A part or character that is constantly giving cues for another character to ‘score off’ or ‘cannon off’ is known as a ‘feeder.’