supply

Less common meanings

5. 5
   make up forverbtransitive

   To make up for a shortage, or to compensate for a lack of something.

   Imports supply the shortfall when local crops fail.

   Her savings supplied the difference between his wages and the rent.

   UsageThe object names a shortage or lack being made good: supply the shortfall, supply a deficiency.

   Similarcover, fill, meet

   Note

   In Robert Louis Stevenson's Virginibus Puerisque (1881), a man who had never experienced love stays away until he has "supplied the defect." He has not provided a defect; he has made good a lack. The noun names the gap, and supplying it fills the hole.

6. 6
   a stand-innouncountable

   A person who temporarily fills the place of another, such as a teacher or member of the clergy; a substitute.

   The parish relied on a supply to lead Sunday worship during the vacancy.

   Schools keep a list of trained supplies to call on at short notice.

   UsageMost often in the compound supply teacher. Without an article it means the work: a teacher can do supply or work on supply.

   Similarsubstitute, stand-in, replacement, locum

7. 7
   verbarchaictransitive

   To serve in place of something, or to take the place of another.

   Burning ships the banished sun supply.

   1666, Edmund Waller, Instructions to a Painter

   The sun was set, and Vesper, to supply His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.

   1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”

   Similarreplace

   Note

   A poet's construction, in which the subject stands in for something absent. In Edmund Waller's Instructions to a Painter (1665), burning ships "the banished sun supply," lighting the scene in its place. In Dryden's "The Flower and the Leaf" (1700), Vesper lights the sky "to supply / His absent beams." In both, the object is whatever is missing, and the verb often comes late in the line.

8. 8
   cover for someoneverbtransitive or intransitive

   To act as a temporary substitute, especially for a member of the clergy or a teacher, filling a vacant place.

   Retired clergy often supply when a parish has no minister.

   He supplied at three different churches that month.

   UsageOften supply at a church or school, or supply a pulpit.

9. 9
   verbtransitive

   To fill something completely, or to keep it filled.

   Mountain streams supply the reservoir throughout the year.

   The pump supplies the boiler with a constant flow of water.

   UsageOften in the passive: a reservoir is supplied by mountain streams.

   Similarfill, replenish

   Oppositedrain, empty

   Note

   The sense nearest the word's Latin parent: suppleo meant "to fill up, make full, complete." Here supply is about keeping a level up rather than handing something over, as when streams feed a river or a pump keeps a boiler topped up. It shades easily into the everyday "provide" meaning, since whatever keeps a thing full is also providing for it.

10. 10
    public fundsnouncountable or uncountableplural

    Money granted by a legislature, such as Parliament or Congress, to meet the nation's annual expenses.

    The House debated supply for several weeks before approving the budget.

    Without a vote of supply, the government could not fund its departments.

    UsageOften used without an article: Parliament votes supply, a vote of supply; the plural supplies is also used.

    Note

    Control of this grant is one of a legislature's strongest checks on government, because a government refused supply cannot pay for the spending that depends on that grant.

11. 11
    adverb

    In a supple manner; with easy, flexible movement.

    His voice was playful and full; his back was bent supply.

    1906, Ford Madox Ford, The fifth queen: and how she came to court