FEEDING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does feeding mean? 

• FEEDING (noun)
  The noun FEEDING has 2 senses:

1. the act of consuming food

2. the act of supplying food and nourishment

  Familiarity information: FEEDING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEEDING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of consuming food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

eating; feeding

Hypernyms ("feeding" is a kind of...):

consumption; ingestion; intake; uptake (the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating))

Meronyms (parts of "feeding"):

chew; chewing; manduction; mastication (biting and grinding food in your mouth so it becomes soft enough to swallow)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "feeding"):

bite; chomp (the act of gripping or chewing off with the teeth and jaws)

scatophagy (the eating of excrement or other filth)

omophagia (the eating of raw food)

necrophagia; necrophagy (feeding on corpses or carrion)

degustation; relishing; savoring; savouring; tasting (taking a small amount into the mouth to test its quality)

supping (ingestion of liquid food with a spoon or by drinking)

repletion; surfeit (eating until excessively full)

lunching (the act of eating lunch)

graze; grazing (the act of grazing)

banqueting; feasting (eating an elaborate meal (often accompanied by entertainment))

engorgement (eating ravenously or voraciously to satiation)

dining (the act of eating dinner)

coprophagia; coprophagy (eating feces; in human a symptom of some kinds of insanity)

browse; browsing (the act of feeding by continual nibbling)

mycophagy (the practice of eating fungi (especially mushrooms collected in the wild))

Derivation:

feed (take in food; used of animals only)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of supplying food and nourishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

alimentation; feeding

Hypernyms ("feeding" is a kind of...):

provision; supply; supplying (the activity of supplying or providing something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "feeding"):

lactation; suckling (feeding an infant by giving suck at the breast)

infant feeding (feeding an infant)

forced feeding; gavage (feeding that consists of the delivery of a nutrient solution (as through a nasal tube) to someone who cannot or will not eat)

intravenous feeding; IV (administration of nutrients through a vein)

overfeeding (excessive feeding)

spoonfeeding (feeding someone (as a baby) from a spoon)

hyperalimentation; total parenteral nutrition; TPN (administration of a nutritionally adequate solution through a catheter into the vena cava; used in cases of long-term coma or severe burns or severe gastrointestinal syndromes)

Derivation:

feed (give food to)

feed (provide as food)

 Context examples 

A new high-precision feeding system for lab mice reinforces the idea that the time of day food is eaten is more critical to weight loss than the amount of calories ingested.

(Eating at 'Wrong Time' Affects Body Weight, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The new study focuses on the "feeding" ones, called active, supermassive black holes, or active galactic nuclei.

(NASA's WISE findings poke hole in black hole 'Doughnut' theory, NASA)

Feeding peaks occur in the early morning and late afternoon, and there are several daily periods of rest.

(Horse, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Behavioral responses or sequences associated with eating including modes of feeding, rhythmic patterns of eating, and time intervals.

(Ingestive Behavior, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

One of the target tissues of leptin is the hypothalamus where it can act to regulate feeding behavior and metabolism.

(Insulin Resistance Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Milk produced by female mammals for the purpose of feeding their young.

(Breast Milk, NCI Thesaurus)

They include feeding difficulties, lethargy, hypoglycemia, hypotonia, liver abnormalities, heart abnormalities, peripheral neuropathy, coma, and sudden death.

(Mitochondrial Trifunctional Protein Deficiency, NCI Thesaurus)

This allele, which encodes orexin protein, plays a role in both G-protein coupled receptor signaling and feeding behavior.

(HCRT wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Six out of the seven jellyfish galaxies in the study were found to host a supermassive black hole at the centre, feeding on the surrounding gas.

(Supermassive Black Holes Feed on Cosmic Jellyfish, ESO)

But they can survive over a year without feeding.

(Bedbugs, Environmental Protection Agency)