food, nutrient
(noun) any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue
food, food for thought, intellectual nourishment
(noun) anything that provides mental stimulus for thinking
food, solid food
(noun) any solid substance (as opposed to liquid) that is used as a source of nourishment; “food and drink”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
food (usually uncountable, plural foods)
(uncountable) Any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
Synonym: Thesaurus:food
(countable) A foodstuff.
Synonyms: belly-timber (archaic, now only humorous or regional), foodstuff, provender, Thesaurus:food
(uncountable, figuratively) Anything that nourishes or sustains.
Hyponym: brainfood
• Adjectives often applied to "food": raw, cooked, baked, fried, grilled, processed, healthy, unhealthy, wholesome, nutritious, safe, toxic, tainted, adulterated, tasty, delicious, fresh, stale, sweet, sour, spicy, exotic, marine.
• (substance consumed by living organisms): belly-timber (archaic, now only humorous or regional), chow (slang), comestible (formal), eats (slang), feed (for domesticated animals), fodder (for domesticated animals), foodstuffs, nosh (slang), nourishment, provender, sustenance, victuals
• do of, doof
Source: Wiktionary
Food, n. Etym: [OE. fode, AS. foda; akin to Icel. fæ\'eba, fæ\'ebi, Sw. föda, Dan. & LG. föde, OHG. fatunga, Gr. patei^sthai to eat, and perh. to Skr. pa to protect, L. pascere to feed, pasture, pabulum food, E. pasture. *75. Cf. Feed, Fodder food, Foster to cherish.]
1. What is fed upon; that which goes to support life by being received within, and assimilated by, the organism of an animal or a plant; nutriment; aliment; especially, what is eaten by animals for nourishment.
Note: In a physiological sense, true aliment is to be distinguished as that portion of the food which is capable of being digested and absorbed into the blood, thus furnishing nourishment, in distinction from the indigestible matter which passes out through the alimentary canal as fæces.
Note: Foods are divided into two main groups: nitrogenous, or proteid, foods, i.e., those which contain nitrogen, and nonnitrogenous, i.e., those which do not contain nitrogen. The latter group embraces the fats and carbohydrates, which collectively are sometimes termed heat producers or respiratory foods, since by oxidation in the body they especially subserve the production of heat. The proteids, on the other hand, are known as plastic foods or tissue formers, since no tissue can be formed without them. These latter terms, however, are misleading, since proteid foods may also give rise to heat both directly and indirectly, and the fats and carbohydrates are useful in other ways than in producing heat.
2. Anything that instructs the intellect, excites the feelings, or molds habits of character; that which nourishes. This may prove food to my displeasure. Shak. In this moment there is life and food For future years. Wordsworth.
Note: Food is often used adjectively or in self-explaining compounds, as in food fish or food-fish, food supply. Food vacuole (Zoöl.), one of the spaces in the interior of a protozoan in which food is contained, during digestion.
– Food yolk. (Biol.) See under Yolk.
Syn.
– Aliment; sustenance; nutriment; feed; fare; victuals; provisions; meat.
Food, v. t.
Definition: To supply with food. [Obs.] Baret.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
2 April 2025
(adjective) secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed; “covert actions by the CIA”; “covert funding for the rebels”
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
