Word.ws English Dictionary

drip-feed

drip-feed noun: a device for dispensing liquids in a slow, regular stream of drops or very small quantities.

Noun

drip-feed (plural drip-feeds)

  1. A device for dispensing liquids in a slow, regular stream of drops or very small quantities.
  2. (especially) A device for dripping nutrients or drugs directly into a patient's bloodstream.

Verb

drip-feed (third-person singular simple present drip-feeds, present participle drip-feeding, simple past and past participle drip-fed)

  1. (transitive) To dispense (a liquid) using a drip-feed.
  2. (transitive) To administer nutrients, drugs, etc. to (a patient) using a drip-feed.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To dispense or dole out in very small portions over a period of time.
    • We don't fully know what is going on. Right now we're just being drip-fed information.

Forms of drip-feed

Noun
pluraldrip-feeds
alternative formdrip feed
alternative formdripfeed
Verb
third-person singular presentdrip-feeds
present participledrip-feeding
past participledrip-fed
pastdrip-fed

Words formed from drip-feed

  • drip feeder

Questions about drip-feed

What does drip-feed mean?
Drip-feed means a device for dispensing liquids in a slow, regular stream of drops or very small quantities.
What part of speech is drip-feed?
Drip-feed can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of drip-feed?
The plural of drip-feed is drip-feeds.

Words near drip-feed in the dictionary

  1. drip-dried
  2. drip-dries
  3. drip-dry
  4. drip-drying
  5. drip-fed
  6. drip-feed
  7. drip-feeding
  8. drip-feeds
  9. dripfeed
  10. dripfeeds
  11. driphole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drip-feed (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “drip-feed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drip-feed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.