FEED ON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does feed on mean? 

• FEED ON (verb)
  The verb FEED ON has 1 sense:

1. be sustained by

  Familiarity information: FEED ON used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEED ON (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be sustained by

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

feed on; feed upon

Context example:

He fed on the great ideas of her mentor

Hypernyms (to "feed on" is one way to...):

conform to; fill; fit; fulfil; fulfill; meet; satisfy (fill, satisfy or meet a want or need or condtion ro restriction)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

They live on people's heads and feed on their blood.

(Head Lice, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Other organisms feed on the microbes, and the resistant bacteria could have effects scientists can't yet predict.

(Nanoparticles may have bigger impact on the environment than previously thought, National Science Foundation)

But they give themselves away when material they feed on emits high-energy X-rays that NASA's NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission can detect.

(Black Holes Hide in Our Cosmic Backyard, NASA)

Lice attach tightly to hair, fur, and feathers of the host organism and feed on blood, skin, and sebaceous secretions.

(Lice, NCI Thesaurus)

"However, some zooplankton also feed on those sinking particles, thus decreasing the efficiency of that pump."

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)

However, now and then they take a whale that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the common people feed on heartily.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Steep slopes in the seabed also cause an upwelling of sea currents that stimulate plankton and small crustaceans such as krill that the whale sharks feed on.

(New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities, Wikinews)

Bedbugs bite you and feed on your blood.

(Bedbugs, Environmental Protection Agency)

According to the hypothesis of the report, the microbe population grew because there was suddenly a large quantity of nitrates in the water for them to feed on.

(Scientists report skyrocketing phyotplankton population in aftermath of Kīlauea eruption, Wikinews)

Because they feed on insects, amphibians also control vectors of diseases such as zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and others transmitted by mosquitoes.

(Deadly fungal disease ‘caused greatest biodiversity loss ever recorded’, SciDev.Net)