Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Dry food, such as hay, used as feed for livestock.
  • noun Food or provisions.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To feed; fodder, as a horse.
  • noun Food; provisions; especially, dry food for beasts, as hay, straw, or corn; fodder.
  • noun A prebend.
  • noun Synonyms Fodder, etc. See feed, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Dry food for domestic animals, as hay, straw, corn, oats, or a mixture of ground grain; feed.
  • noun R or Obs. Food or provisions.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Food, especially for livestock.
  • noun An edible material that provides sustenance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun food for domestic livestock
  • noun a stock or supply of foods

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English provendre, from Old French, alteration of provende, from Vulgar Latin *prōvenda, alteration (influenced by Latin prōvidēre, to provide) of Late Latin praebenda; see prebend.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English provendre, from Old French provendre, var. of provende ("allowance, provision"), from Late Latin praebenda ("a payment, in Medieval Latin also an allowance of food and drink, pittance, also a prebend"); see prebend.

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Examples

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  • "I found a bench to myself, and began to bite greedily into my provender. It did me good; it was a long time since I had had such a square meal, and, by degrees, I felt the same sated quiet steal over me that one feels after a good long cry."

    - Knut Hamsun, 'Hunger'.

    July 25, 2009

  • "We had provender for a fortnight in the wilderness. . ." "Fifty-seven Views of Fujiyama" by Guy Davenport

    January 19, 2010

  • This word was used in "The Fellowship Of The Rings" book when talking about Bilbo's birthday party.

    February 10, 2013