provender
/ˈpɹɒvɪndə/US/ˈpɹɑvəndɚ/
provender noun: food, especially for livestock.
Noun
provender (usually uncountable, plural provenders)
- Food, especially for livestock.
- ...and in a few moments would have had their hands on one hundred and eighty thousand dollars of gold, when from some cause unknown, they decamped leaving all their tools behind, together with provender for the seige.1847, editorial staff, “Attempt at Robbery”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 66
- The farm which supplied to him ungrudging provender had all his vast capacity for work in willing exercise …1859, George Meredith, chapter 12, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- fodder, aliment, bait, belly-timber, chow, comestibles, cuisine, eatables, eats, edibles
Verb
provender (third-person singular simple present provenders, present participle provendering, simple past and past participle provendered)
- To feed.
- One night, after several days of continuous plowing, and after the ox and mule had been stabled and provendered for the night, the ox said to the mule […]1911, International Horseshoers' Monthly Magazine, volume 12, page 35
provender meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
provender in Tamil
- கால்நடை, தீனி, உணவு
provender in Urdu
- غذا, خوراک
provender in Malayalam
- provender or provisions for a journey, viaticum, supplies for journey
- പാഥേയം pāthēyaṁ
provender in Kannada
- ಮೇವು, ಕರಡ
Examples of provender in a sentence
- He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed.1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto CANTO 2.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […]...
- Irregular, sporadic feeding and strange provender were beginning to take their toll, and I felt queasy at the thought of 'various curries' the Amat's clerk had promised for the first meal of the day.1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth:
- Bringing up young hobbits took a lot of provender.1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Chapter I, A long-expected party:
Synonyms of provender
24 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of provender
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | provenders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | provenders |
| present participle | provendering |
| past participle | provendered |
| past | provendered |
Origin of provender
From Middle English provendre, from Old French provendre, variant of provende (“allowance, provision”), from Late Latin praebenda (“a payment, in Medieval Latin also an allowance of food and drink, pittance, also a prebend”). Doublet of prebend.
Questions about provender
- What does provender mean?
- Provender means food, especially for livestock.
- What is provender in Tamil?
- Provender in Tamil is கால்நடை, தீனி, உணவு. See Provender meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use provender in a sentence?
- He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed.
- What part of speech is provender?
- Provender can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce provender?
- Provender is pronounced /ˈpɹɒvɪndə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of provender?
- The plural of provender is provenders.
Words near provender in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: provender (page history and authors); provender (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); provender (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); പാഥേയം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); provender (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-provender.wav.
Cite this entry: “provender.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/provender. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.