feeder

Etymology

From Middle English feedere, federe, fedare, equivalent to feed +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːdə(r)

Noun

feeder (plural feeders)

1. One who feeds, or takes in food.
   • 1871, George Miller Beard, Eating and Drinking

     There are many who are dietarians in theory, but liberal feeders in practice. They suppose or maintain that it is a duty to deny oneself of all luxuries at the table, but practically they take the best that they can get.

2. One who, or that which, feeds material into something.
   • 2007, Thomas E. Lightburn, The Shield and the Shark (page 173)

     When the claxon sounded they immediately stopped what they were doing and uncovered the Oerlikon. Paddy, who was ammunition feeder, stood by while Jock trained the 20mm gun around.

3. That which is used to feed.

   a bird feeder

4. A tributary stream, especially of a canal.
   • 1827, Conrad Malte-Brun, Universal Geography, or A Description of All the Parts of the World, on a New Plan, Edinburgh: Adam Black, volume 6, book 101, 285:

     The surface of the Balaton and the surrounding marshes is not less than 24 German square miles, or 384 English square miles; its principal feeder is the Szala, but all the water it receives appears inconsiderable relatively to its superficial extent, and the quantity lost in evaporation.

5. A branch line of a railway
6. A transmission line that feeds the electricity for an electricity substation, or for a transmitter.
7. (baseball, slang, archaic, 1800s) The pitcher.
8. (video games, derogatory) A player who is killed by the opposing player or team more than once through lack of skills and experience, thus helping the opposing side.

   Stop feeding! You feeder.

9. The participant in feederism who feeds the other (the feedee).
   • 2010, Niall Richardson, Transgressive Bodies

     Often similes such as 'soft as velvet' or 'fluffy like a cloud' will be employed and the feeder will describe how he feels he can be lost in the enveloping folds of soft flesh.

Anagrams

• ferede, reefed, refeed

Etymology

fee +‎ -der (compare Scottish Gaelic figheadair)

Noun

feeder m (genitive singular feeder, plural feederyn)

1. spider
2. weaver

Mutation