victuall

Noun

victual (plural victuals)

1. (archaic) Food fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption.
   • Shift bore (for il aire) as best ye do thinke, / and twise a day giue him fresh vittle and drinke: […]1878, Thomas Tusser, “Septembers Husbandrie”, in Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie. […], London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co., […], →OCLC; republished as W[illiam]...
2. (archaic, in plural) Food supplies; provisions.
   • It is good to make prouiſion, for peraduenture wee ſhall lacke victuals and wee lie in campe on Blacke Heath long.1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act II
3. (obsolete, specifically) Edible plants.
   • [C]onſider, what Victuall or Eſculent Things there are, which grow ſpeedily, and within the yeere, As Parſnips, Carrets, Turnips, Onions, Radiſh, Artichokes of Hieruſalem, Maiz, and the like. […] The Victuall in Plantations, ought to be expanded, almoſt as in a Beſieged Towne; That is, with...1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Plantations. XXXIII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 199–200
4. (Scotland, obsolete, specifically) Grain of any kind.
   • But if the beast and branks be spar'd / Till kye be gaun without the herd, / An' a' the vittel in the yard, / An' theckit right, / I mean your ingle-side to guard / Ae winter night.1785 September 13, Robert Burns, “Epistles in Verse. To J. Lapraik.”, in R[obert] H[artley] Cromek, compiler, Reliques of Robert Burns; Consisting Chiefly of Original Letters, Poems, and Critical...

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