feeder

[fee-der] /ˈfi dər/
noun
1.
a person or thing that supplies food or feeds something.
2.
a bin or boxlike device from which farm animals may eat, especially such a device designed to allow a number of chickens to feed simultaneously or to release a specific amount of feed at regular intervals.
3.
a person or thing that takes food or nourishment.
4.
a livestock animal that is fed an enriched diet to fatten it for market.
Compare stocker (def 2).
5.
a person or device that feeds a machine, printing press, etc.
6.
a tributary stream.
7.
bird feeder.
8.
feeder line.
9.
feeder road.
10.
Also, feed. Electricity. a conductor, or group of conductors, connecting primary equipment in an electric power system.
11.
British. a baby's bib.
12.
Theater Slang. straight man.
adjective
13.
being, functioning as, or serving as a feeder.
14.
pertaining to livestock to be fattened for market.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English; see feed, -er1
Examples from the web for feeder
  • The researchers then trained nectar-eating bats to find a feeder hidden in artificial foliage.
  • But when they took out the lawn, they realized they had shallow feeder rots out to the edges of their property in all directions.
  • It occurs to me that each of the bare-root cherries cost me about the same amount of money as a good bird feeder.
  • Face facts: there are some people who will never be satisfied with the design as long as it's not a bird feeder.
  • He'd given up all the other livestock, but twenty feeder pigs still remained.
  • He teeters when he walks, he no longer drives, he looks out the window and watches birds come to his feeder.
  • They make last-second break-ins from stop signs on feeder roads.
  • There was so much snow around the coop this winter that the feeder, perched atop concrete blocks, got buried.
  • Inquire about his finances and he talks about his hummingbird feeder.
  • Marijuana isn't dangerous, and it isn't a feeder drug.
British Dictionary definitions for feeder

feeder

/ˈfiːdə/
noun
1.
a person or thing that feeds or is fed
2.
a child's feeding bottle or bib
3.
(agriculture, mainly US & Canadian) a head of livestock being fattened for slaughter
4.
a person or device that feeds the working material into a system or machine
5.
a tributary channel, esp one that supplies a reservoir or canal with water
6.
  1. a road, service, etc, that links secondary areas to the main traffic network
  2. (as modifier): a feeder bus
7.
  1. a transmission line connecting an aerial to a transmitter or receiver
  2. a power line for transmitting electrical power from a generating station to a distribution network
Word Origin and History for feeder
n.

early 15c., "one who feeds an animal;" 1560s, "one who eats;" agent noun from feed. As a mechanical apparatus, from 1660s. Of cattle and streams, by 1790s; of roads and railroads, by 1850s.