noun
- a person or thing that supplies food or feeds something.
- a bin or boxlike device from which farm animals may eat, especially such a device designed to allow a number of chickens to feed simultaneously or to release a specific amount of feed at regular intervals.
- a person or thing that takes food or nourishment.
- a livestock animal that is fed an enriched diet to fatten it for market.Compare stocker(def 2).
- a person or device that feeds a machine, printing press, etc.
- a tributary stream.
- bird feeder.
- feeder line.
- feeder road.
- Also feed. Electricity. a conductor, or group of conductors, connecting primary equipment in an electric power system.
- British. a baby’s bib.
- Theater Slang. straight man.
adjective
- being, functioning as, or serving as a feeder.
- pertaining to livestock to be fattened for market.
noun
- a person or thing that feeds or is fed
- a child’s feeding bottle or bib
- agriculture, mainly US and Canadian a head of livestock being fattened for slaughter
- a person or device that feeds the working material into a system or machine
- a tributary channel, esp one that supplies a reservoir or canal with water
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- a road, service, etc, that links secondary areas to the main traffic network
- (as modifier)a feeder bus
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- a transmission line connecting an aerial to a transmitter or receiver
- a power line for transmitting electrical power from a generating station to a distribution network
early 15c., “one who feeds an animal;” 1560s, “one who eats;” agent noun from feed. As a mechanical apparatus, from 1660s. Of cattle and streams, by 1790s; of roads and railroads, by 1850s.