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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

food       (fōōd)  Pronunciation Key  n.   Material, usually of plant or animal origin, that contains or consists of essential body nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and maintain life. A specified kind of nourishment: breakfast food; plant food. Nourishment eaten in solid form: food and drink. Something that nourishes or sustains in a way suggestive of physical nourishment: food for thought; food for the soul. [Middle English fode, from Old English fōda; see pā- in Indo-European roots.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
food 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

food
noun
1.	any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue
2.	any solid substance (as opposed to liquid) that is used as a source of nourishment; "food and drink"
3.	anything that provides mental stimulus for thinking

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

food (f&oomacr;d)
n.
Material, usually of plant or animal origin, that contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and maintain life.

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: food
Pronunciation: 'füd
Function: noun
often attributive 1 : material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, andfat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy; also : such material together with supplementary substances (as minerals,vitamins, and condiments)
2 : nutriment in solid form

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Food

Feed\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fed; p. pr. & vb. n. Feeding.] [AS. f?dan, fr. f?da food; akin to C?. f?dian, OFries f?da, f?da, D. voeden, OHG. fuottan, Icel. f[ae]?a, Sw. f["o]da, Dan. f["o]de. ? 75. See Food.]

1. To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of.

If thine enemy hunger, feed him. --Rom. xii. 20.

Unreasonable reatures feed their young. --Shak.

2. To satisfy; grafity or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire.

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. --Shak.

Feeding him with the hope of liberty. --Knolles.

3. To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal.

4. To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard.

Thou shalt feed people Israel. --2 Sam. v. 2.

Mightiest powers by deepest calms are feed. --B. Cornwall.

5. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle; as, if grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.

Once in three years feed your mowing lands. --Mortimer.

6. To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to a steam boiler.

7. (Mach.) (a) To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing press. (b) To produce progressive operation upon or with (as in wood and metal working machines, so that the work moves to the cutting tool, or the tool to the work).

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Food

Food\, n. [OE. fode, AS. f[=o]da; akin to Icel. f[ae][eth]a, f[ae][eth]i, Sw. f["o]da, Dan. & LG. f["o]de, OHG. fatunga, Gr. patei^sthai to eat, and perh. to Skr. p[=a] to protect, L. pascere to feed, pasture, pabulum food, E. pasture. [root]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 f[ae]ces.

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 (Zo["o]l.), 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.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Food

Originally the Creator granted the use of the vegetable world for food to man (Gen. 1:29), with the exception mentioned (2:17). The use of animal food was probably not unknown to the antediluvians. There is, however, a distinct law on the subject given to Noah after the Deluge (Gen. 9:2-5). Various articles of food used in the patriarchal age are mentioned in Gen. 18:6-8; 25:34; 27:3, 4; 43:11. Regarding the food of the Israelites in Egypt, see Ex. 16:3; Num. 11:5. In the wilderness their ordinary food was miraculously supplied in the manna. They had also quails (Ex. 16:11-13; Num. 11:31). In the law of Moses there are special regulations as to the animals to be used for food (Lev. 11; Deut. 14:3-21). The Jews were also forbidden to use as food anything that had been consecrated to idols (Ex. 34:15), or animals that had died of disease or had been torn by wild beasts (Ex. 22:31; Lev. 22:8). (See also for other restrictions Ex. 23:19; 29:13-22; Lev. 3:4-9; 9:18, 19; 22:8; Deut. 14:21.) But beyond these restrictions they had a large grant from God (Deut. 14:26; 32:13, 14). Food was prepared for use in various ways. The cereals were sometimes eaten without any preparation (Lev. 23:14; Deut. 23:25; 2 Kings 4:42). Vegetables were cooked by boiling (Gen. 25:30, 34; 2 Kings 4:38, 39), and thus also other articles of food were prepared for use (Gen. 27:4; Prov. 23:3; Ezek. 24:10; Luke 24:42; John 21:9). Food was also prepared by roasting (Ex. 12:8; Lev. 2:14). (See COOK.)

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FOOD

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food

food: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary