Forms: 1 fóda, 2–6 fode, 3 south. vode, (4 fod), 3–6 fud(e, (4 Sc. fute, 5 fotte, foyde, fudde, Sc. fwde, 6 fooade, Sc. fuid, fuode), 4–6 foode, 6– food. [OE. fóda wk. masc.; the exact equivalent (:—OTeut. type *fôðon-) does not occur elsewhere; the synonymous ON. fœðe str. neut., fœða wk. fem. (Sw. fȯda fem., Da. föde), and Goth. fôdeins str. fem., are derivatives of the cognate vb. OTeut. *fôðjan to FEED. The Teut. root *fað-, fôð (whence also FODDER and the cognates there mentioned) represents OAryan *pāt-, whence Gr. πατέεσθαι, to feed.]
1. What is taken into the system to maintain life and growth, and to supply the waste of tissue; aliment, nourishment, provisions, victuals.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Sigew. Interr., in Anglia, VII. 34. On þære oðre fleringe wæs heora nytena foda ȝeloȝod.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 260. He hefde uode ase ueol to him.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23084 (Cott.). I was hungre, yee gaf me fode.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 188.
| For syndri cornys that thai bair | |
| Woxe rype to wyn to mannys fude. |
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1173.
| Him moneste as a maister · him maynly to send | |
| Fresch folke for þe fiȝt · & fode for his oste. |
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xii. § 5. He … requireth that Christian men at their owne home take common foode, and in the house of the Lord none but that foode which is heauenly.
a. 1687. Waller, Upon Roscommon’s Hor., 57.
| They [Bees] give us food, which may with nectar vie, | |
| And wax, that does the absent sun supply. |
1789. G. White, Selborne, Lett. xv. Worms are their usual food, but they [stone curlews] also eat toads and frogs.
1798. Malthus, Popul. (1890), 288. The obvious reason to be assigned is the want of food; and that this want is the most efficient cause of the three immediate checks to population, which have been observed to prevail in all societies, is evident from the rapidity with which even old states recover the desolations of war, pestilence, famine, and the convulsions of nature.
1860–1. Flo. Nightingale, Nursing, 46. A nurse is ordered to give a patient a tea-cupful of some article of food every three hours.
b. What is edible, as opposed to ‘drink.’
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. ii. 160. Some food we had, and some fresh water.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 790.
| Simple his Bev’rage, homely was his Food; | |
| The wholsom Herbage, and the running Flood. |
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 516. The crews had better food and drink than they had ever had before: comforts which Spain did not afford were supplied from home; and yet the charge was not greater than when, in Torrington’s time, the sailor was poisoned with mouldy biscuit and nauseous beer.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1138. And wine and food were brought.
† c. Sustenance, ‘livelihood.’ Obs.
a. 1066. Charter of Eadward (MS. 14th c.), in Cod. Dipl., IV. 214. Ic wille ðat ðæt cotlif Molesham ðe Leofcild ahte and bequað Crist and sainte Peter into Westminstre ligge unðder into ðare munece fodan ellswa he hit geuðe.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 19. Peter fysshed for hus fode · and hus fere Andreu.
1548. Forrest, Pleas. Poesye, 287. Which such may compell to earn their Fooade.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Sonn. xlvii.
| Vhy haif I not, O god, als blunt a [braine] | |
| As he that daylie worbleth in the wyne, | |
| Or to mak faggots for his fuid is fane? |
d. Phrases: To be food for (an animal, worms): to be a prey to, to be devoured by. To be food for fishes: to be drowned. Food for powder: fit only to be shot at or to die in battle.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 276. Ne schalt tu beon wurmes fode?
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 71. Good enough to tosse: foode for Powder, foode for Powder: they’le fill a Pit, as well as better.
| Ibid., V. iv. 86. | |
| Hot.… No Percy, thou art dust | |
| And food for ——— | |
| Prin. For Wormes, braue Percy. | |
| Ibid. (1601), As You Like It, II. vi. 6. | |
| If this vncouth Forrest yeeld any thing sauage, | |
| I wil either be food for it, or bring it for foode to thee. |
1894. Rider Haggard, Mr. Meeson’s Will, xxii. He was food for fishes now, poor fellow.
e. An article of food; a kind of food.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 26.
| My fader, I you shall reherce, | |
| How that my fodes ben diverse. |
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., III. v. 303. We hauyng foodis and with what thingis we schulen be hilid, be we content or paied with these thingis.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 5 b. God sent from heuen a swete fode for theyr brede called manna.
1617. Markham, Cavelarice, I. 56. In England, where we have so many choices of good foodes.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., IV. (1677), 45. The larger the Pike, the courser the food, the smaller being ever best; contrary to the nature of Eels, which improve their goodness by their bulk and age.
1754. Dict. Arts & Sc., II. 1298/2. Foods proper for preserving health ought not only to contain a laudable juice, but should likewise be easily dissolved by the stomach.
1887. Cassell’s Fam. Physician, 911. How best to keep the human machine at work, and what are the proper fuels, or foods, with which to supply it.
2. With reference to plants: That which they absorb from the earth and air; nutriment.
1759. trans. Duhamel’s Husb., II. i. (1762), 3. A root that has been cut or broken, never grows longer, but soon produces several new roots, all of which gather the proper food of the plant.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric., iii. (ed. 2), 5. The vegetation of plants is promoted by communicating to the earth their food.
1869. Roscoe, Elem. Chem. (1878), 372. Plants possess the peculiar power of selection, by the roots, of the mineral constituents of food, as well as the subsequent chemical elaboration of the materials.
3. fig. (In early use applied more widely than is now admissible.)
c. 1000. in Thorpe, Ags. Hom., II. 396. Gif he hi forlæt buton ðam godspellican fodan on heora andȝite.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 63.
| Swa bi-houeð þe saule fode, | |
| mid godes wordes mid gode mode. |
a. 1300. Cursor M., 29058 (Cott.).
| Þat þi fast to saul fode mai falle, | |
| And noght at fill þi purs wit-alle. |
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, cxxvii. 2. Trauels are takyn with ioy for hope, and thei are now fode til soul.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 14.
| God, þou be my strengist fode, | |
| And wisse þou me whan me is wo. |
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxii. 53.
| With blude and sweit was all deflorde | |
| His face, the fude of angellis fre. |
1538. Starkey, England, I. ii. 55. Nuryschyd wyth the spiritual fode of hys celestyal word.
1595. Shaks., John, III. iv. 104.
| O Lord, my boy, my Arthur, my faire sonne, | |
| My life, my ioy, my food, my all the world. |
1713. Steele, Englishman, No. 10, 27 Oct., 67. Praise is the Food of a great Soul; and Men of Spirit usually want it in so great a Degree, that they had rather have the Applause of Men for ill Actions, than suffer their Contempt for good ones.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 620.
| For such is all the mental food purveyed | |
| By public hackneys in the schooling trade. |
1801. Wordsw., Sonn. to Liberty, I. iv.
| I griev’d for Buonaparte, with a vain | |
| And an unthinking grief! the vital blood | |
| Of that Man’s mind what can it be? What food | |
| Fed his first hopes? |
1891. Edin. Rev., July, 132. Any writer who strikes upon a fresh vein of thought or treatment secures an eager welcome and achieves an immediate, often an exaggerated, reputation. Of novelists this is especially true, for fiction is the only intellectual food of thousands.
b. In sense of: Matter to discuss or dwell upon.
1780. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 347. Our own manners afford food enough for poetry, if we knew how to dress it.
1825. Southey, Tale of Paraguay, III. 19.
| A garrulous, but a lively tale, and fraught | |
| With matter of delight and food for thought. |
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 83. There the reflective will find food for their meditations, and the sanguine for their dreams.
4. transf. † a. Material for keeping up a fire.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., x. (1889), 56. Foda fyres holt.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 150. Bowes … to none þinge betere þen to fures fode.
b. = SHODDY: (see quot.)
1857. C. B. Robinson in H. Best, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641 (Surtees), Gloss., s.v. Scudde.… The entire substance that falls on the floor being called ‘shoddy’ or ‘food,’ and being sold at a high rate for top dressing grass land.
† 5. The act of eating. In food: while eating or feeding. Obs.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 894. Wið bredes fode and wines drinc.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1.
| When folk ere festid & fed · fayn wald þai here | |
| Sum farand þing efter fode · to fayn þare her[t]. |
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., V. i. 83.
| In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest | |
| To be disturb’d, would mad or man, or beast. |
† 6. That which is fed; a child, offspring. Also in wider sense: A creature, person, man. Obs.
In early use also collect., a brood, race. Cf. OF. norriture, nourriture, med. Lat. nutrimentum, a young animal.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 94. Þu fedest on heom a wel ful fode.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 679 (Cott.).
| Fouxl o flight, and fiss on sand, | |
| All fell him doun to fote and hand; | |
| At his will þai com and ȝode, | |
| Als he war fader o þair fode. |
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1384.
| Aþulf þe gode, | |
| Min oȝene child, mi leve fode. |
1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 578.
| Men mycht se mony frely fute | |
| About the costis thar lukand. |
c. 1400. Ywaine & Gaw., 1621.
| Sertainly so fals a fode, | |
| Was never cumen of kynges blode. |
c. 1475[?]. Sqr. lowe Degre, 361, in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 37.
| I may not beleue, by nyght nor daye, | |
| My doughter dere he wyll betraye, | |
| Nor to come her chambre nye, | |
| That fode to long with no foly. |
c. 1485. Digby Myst., III. 942. I have a favorows fode, and fresse as the fakown.
7. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as food-pan, -truck; in sense of ‘fit or used for food,’ as food-bird, -fish, -grain, -plant, -stuff, -substance.
1879. H. George, Progr. & Pov., II. iii. (1881), 116. If he but shoot hawks, *food-birds will increase; if he but trap foxes the wild rabbits will multiply; the bumble bee moves with the pioneer, and on the organic matter with which man’s presence fills the rivers, fishes feed.
1884. S. E. Dawson, Handbk. Canada, 334. Herring, haddock and other *food fishes are abundant, but do not attract much attention.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, 486. This remarkable *food grain [quinua] might doubtless be usefully cultivated in the loftier districts of the Himalayas.
1871. Alabaster, Wheel of Law, 145. He washed his face and hands, took his *food-pan, and went and sat under the shade of the great banyan-tree.
1871. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 208. From the new countries in both hemispheres were also received many novel and valuable *food-plants, such as tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, rice, Indian corn, and the spice plants.
1872. Huxley, Phys., vi. 138. *Food-stuffs have been divided into heat-producers and tissue-formers.
1886. Longm. Mag., VII. Jan., 329. ‘Now, then, is this your fine Walking Sausage-roll Shop?’ exclaimed a great brawny fellow, as he lurched up to the *food-truck, which has now for two years been supported by the readers of LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.
b. objective, as food-gatherer, -grower; food-producing ppl. adj.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea, 153. The pseudopodia are *food-gatherers as well as instruments of locomotion.
1841. S. Smith, in Mem. (1855), II. 457. You may laugh, dear G., but, after all, the country is most dreadful! The real use of it is to find food for cities; but as for a residence of any man who is neither butcher nor baker, nor *food-grower in any of its branches, it is a dreadful waste of existence and abuse of life.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. XIV. 326.
| Lay one hand | |
| Upon the *food-producing earth, and place | |
| The other on the glimmering sea. |
8. Special comb.: food-chemist, one occupied in the analysis of foods; † food-fit a., fit to be used as food; food-rent (see quot.); † food-sick a., sick for want of food; food-yolk, the non-germinative part of the yolk of an egg, which nourishes the embryo.
1885. A. W. Blyth, Rational Feeding; or, Practical Dietetics, in The Leisure Hour, XXXIV. Jan., 24/2. The method of a *food-chemist in laying down the principles of diet is not unlike that of the grammarian laying down the principles of grammar—the grammarian in the first place finds a spoken or written tongue, from which he deduces his rules; and ultimately is even bold enough to say what kind of composition is correct and what not. The food-chemist studies in like manner the food of nations, of tribes, of individuals, reduces them to their moods and tenses, arranges them in order, and after long experience believes himself competent to enunciate principles, and to say what food is good, what is indifferent, and what is hurtful.
c. 1611. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. IV. The Decay, 423.
| As one same ground indifferently doth breed | |
| Both *food-fit Wheat and dizzie Darnell seed. |
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., vi. 160. The rent in kind, or *food-rent, which was thus proportioned to the stock received, unquestionably developed in time into a rent payable in respect of the tenant’s land.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Sir N. Burdet, xxxii. When facing foysters fit for Tiburne frayes Are *foode-sicke faynt.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 474. Animals which are provided with a *‘food-yolk.’
