feeding
Noun pluralfeedings (some meanings)
Pluralfeedings (some meanings)
- 1Present participle and gerund of feed.
The volunteers are feeding the stray cats each evening.
She is feeding the fire with dry logs.
Note
The -ing form carries every meaning of the verb, from giving a calf its milk to stoking a machine or gratifying a taste. As a gerund it keeps the verb's grammar and takes a direct object (feeding the cats). Once it becomes the noun for giving food, it takes of instead and can be made plural as feedings. The object is the tell: feeding the herd is verbal, while the feeding of the herd is a noun.
- 2The act or process of giving food to a person or animal.
Regular feeding is essential during the first weeks of a calf's life.
At the shelter, feeding of the rescued dogs follows a strict schedule.
Similarnourishment
- 3A single session of giving food to someone, as to a baby or to an animal.
She recorded the time of each feeding in a small notebook.
The lambs were weak and missed two feedings in a row.
Similarmeal
Note
Here the noun counts and keeps a schedule: the morning feeding, the evening feeding, the intervals between feedings that matter so much for newborns. It belongs to the nursery, the ward and the barn alike. It is not a recent usage. The Universal Magazine in 1750 pictures a lion's keeper who tames his animal through "a thousand feedings, and a thousand clawings" and still pulls his hand back in fear.
- 4The process by which a person or animal takes in food.
Whales do most of their feeding in cold, nutrient-rich waters.
Active feeding slows once the herd has grazed the best grass.
Similareating, foraging, grazing
Note
Turned around, the word names the eating rather than the giving, and it is usually said of animals: whales in cold water, herds at round bales in winter. Used of people, it can sound like a naturalist describing a species. Context shows which way it points. Whoever does the feeding in the giving sense is the one supplying the food, not the one eating it.
- 5A single session or bout of eating by a person or animal.
After a heavy feeding, the python lay motionless for days.
Researchers timed the otters' feedings to study their habits.
Similarmeal
- 6The act or process of supplying material to a machine that works on it, such as cotton to a gin or paper to a press.
The feeding of raw cotton into the gin sets the pace for the whole line.
Uneven feeding can jam the printing press and waste paper.
Note
In the mill and the print shop, the verb works in two directions. You feed stock into a machine, and you feed a machine with stock, so "the feeding of" can be followed by either one. "The feeding of raw cotton" names the material, while "the feeding of the No. 3 mill" names the machine being supplied. Which one fills the of-phrase tells you what is being watched.
Less common meanings
- 7What is eaten as nourishment, whether food for people or feed and fodder for animals.
The cattle had little feeding through the long, frozen months.
Good feeding kept the plow horses in fine condition all season.
Similarfood, fodder, nourishment
Note
An older mass noun for the food itself, as in "the cattle had little feeding." In current English, feed and fodder do this work, and feeding in this use now sounds dated or rural. It is fine in period writing, but in a modern farm report "little feed" is the natural choice.
- 8Something that furnishes or provides food, especially for animals.
The upland meadows offered rich feeding for the flock all summer.
That dry pasture provides poor feeding once the rains stop.
Similargrazing, pasture, forage
Note
Older farming talk, used to size up land before a flock is turned onto it: upland meadows give rich feeding, a parched field poor feeding. Here the word means the pasture or grazing that supplies the food, not the food itself. It usually takes an adjective of quality, and because it is dated, pasture or grazing is the plainer choice in current writing.
Showing meanings only.
feeding is a form of feed
feed, verb: To give food to a person or animal, or to give a particular food to them as a meal. Full entry
- Spelling
- feed → feeding: add -ing
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "feed" combined with the suffix "-ing".