supplies

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of supply.

   The relief team distributed food and supplies to the flooded villages.

   Office supplies were running low by the end of the quarter.

   Note

   The plural is where the noun picks up meanings the singular rarely carries alone. In the sense of provisions (food, fuel, stationery gathered for use), the word is typically plural, as in medical supplies or office supplies. Money voted by a legislature also leans plural and has its own financial meaning. The act of supplying, by contrast, stays uncountable and has no plural.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of supply.

   This factory supplies parts to several car manufacturers.

   The reservoir supplies drinking water to two neighboring towns.

   Note

   A present-tense verb that shares its spelling with the noun plural, so only the sentence tells the two apart: a subject before it marks the verb. It almost always takes an object (a factory supplies parts). The receiver often follows with with, as in the firm supplies the army with boots. Without an object it survives only in the sense of standing in for someone.

3. 3
   noun

   Financial resources provided to a body or person, often for a particular purpose.

   Like a budget earmarked for a specific project.

   The treasury released the supplies allocated for flood defenses.

   Ministers refused to grant further supplies until the accounts were audited.

   Similarfunds, appropriations, funding

   Note

   A legal and parliamentary term for money granted rather than goods delivered: the funds a legislature such as Parliament or Congress votes to meet government spending. Its natural verbs are grant, vote, release and refuse. Holding them back is a way to press an executive, as when ministers refuse further supplies until accounts are audited.

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