VICTUALS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does victuals mean? 

• VICTUALS (noun)
  The noun VICTUALS has 3 senses:

1. a stock or supply of foods

2. a source of materials to nourish the body

3. any substance that can be used as food

  Familiarity information: VICTUALS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VICTUALS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A stock or supply of foods

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

commissariat; provender; provisions; viands; victuals

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

food; nutrient (any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue)

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

food cache (food in a secure or hidden storage place)

larder (a supply of food especially for a household)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A source of materials to nourish the body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

aliment; alimentation; nourishment; nutriment; nutrition; sustenance; victuals

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

food; nutrient (any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue)

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

milk (produced by mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young)

vitamin (any of a group of organic substances essential in small quantities to normal metabolism)

wheat germ (embryo of the wheat kernel; removed before milling and eaten as a source of vitamins)

stodge (heavy and filling (and usually starchy) food)

puree (food prepared by cooking and straining or processed in a blender)

mince (food chopped into small bits)

mess (soft semiliquid food)

meal; repast (the food served and eaten at one time)

kosher (food that fulfills the requirements of Jewish dietary law)

ingesta (solid and liquid nourishment taken into the body through the mouth)

finger food (food to be eaten with the fingers)

fast food (inexpensive food (hamburgers or chicken or milkshakes) prepared and served quickly)

dish (a particular item of prepared food)

dainty; delicacy; goody; kickshaw; treat (something considered choice to eat)

course (part of a meal served at one time)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any substance that can be used as food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

comestible; eatable; edible; pabulum; victual; victuals

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

food; nutrient (any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue)

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

tuck (eatables (especially sweets))

 Context examples 

Sometimes we received wine and victuals from below, which were drawn up by pulleys.

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

They sent me own victuals and drink, and took the government of the ship to themselves.

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

He ordered his cooks and butlers, who were already prepared, to give me victuals and drink, which they pushed forward in a sort of vehicles upon wheels, till I could reach them.

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

I had three hundred cooks to dress my victuals, in little convenient huts built about my house, where they and their families lived, and prepared me two dishes a-piece.

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

These circumstances, added to the refreshment I had received by their victuals and drink, which were very nourishing, disposed me to sleep.

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

He asked me, what my thoughts and speculations were, while I lay in the monkey’s paw; how I liked the victuals he gave me; his manner of feeding; and whether the fresh air on the roof had sharpened my stomach.

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

They would sometimes alight upon my victuals, and leave their loathsome excrement, or spawn behind, which to me was very visible, though not to the natives of that country, whose large optics were not so acute as mine, in viewing smaller objects.

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

The poor girl was almost distracted: that quarter of the palace was all in an uproar; the servants ran for ladders; the monkey was seen by hundreds in the court, sitting upon the ridge of a building, holding me like a baby in one of his forepaws, and feeding me with the other, by cramming into my mouth some victuals he had squeezed out of the bag on one side of his chaps, and patting me when I would not eat; whereat many of the rabble below could not forbear laughing; neither do I think they justly ought to be blamed, for, without question, the sight was ridiculous enough to every body but myself.

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

In the midst of these consultations, several officers of the army went to the door of the great council-chamber, and two of them being admitted, gave an account of my behaviour to the six criminals above-mentioned; which made so favourable an impression in the breast of his majesty and the whole board, in my behalf, that an imperial commission was issued out, obliging all the villages, nine hundred yards round the city, to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance; together with a proportionable quantity of bread, and wine, and other liquors; for the due payment of which, his majesty gave assignments upon his treasury:—for this prince lives chiefly upon his own demesnes; seldom, except upon great occasions, raising any subsidies upon his subjects, who are bound to attend him in his wars at their own expense.

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