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Edible vs Victual - What's the difference?

edible | victual |

As nouns the difference between edible and victual

is that edible is anything edible while victual is food fit for human consumption.

As an adjective edible

is that can be eaten without harm; innocuous to humans; suitable for consumption.

As a verb victual is

to provide with food; to provision.

edible

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • That can be eaten without harm; innocuous to humans; suitable for consumption.
  • edible fruit
  • That can be eaten without disgust.
  • Although stale, the bread was edible .
  • * 1957 , Jane Van Zandt Brower, Experimental Stdies of Mimicry in Some North American Butterflies'', in 1996, Lynne D. Houck, Lee C. Drickamer (editors), ''Foundations of Animal Behavior: Classic Papers with Commentaries , page 81,
  • However, rather than try to place the Viceroy in a rigid, all-or-none category which implies more than the data show, the Viceroy is here considered more edible' than its model, the Monarch, but initially less ' edible (except to C-2) than the non-mimetic butterflies used in these experiments.
  • * 2006 , Ernest Small, Culinary Herbs , page 17,
  • Recently germinated seeds are often even more nutritious from the point of view of humans because the stored chemicals are often transformed into more edible and palatable substances.
  • * 2009 , Ephraim Philip Lansky, Helena Maaria Paavilainen, Figs , page 4,
  • This gets to the heart of the matter because, in the parthenogenic state, the fruits are more edible (though there are also apparently advantages to pollinated figs, which may be bigger and stronger) and the trees more productive from the human's point of view.

    Usage notes

    edible is the most common term for “capable of being eaten”; eatable is rather informal, due to simple analysis as eat with , while comestible is relatively formal.

    Synonyms

    * comestible * eatable * eatworthy

    Antonyms

    * inedible

    Coordinate terms

    * drinkable, potable * delectable

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything edible.
  • (marijuana) a foodstuff, usually a baked good, infused with tetrahydrocannabinol from cannabutter etc.
  • Synonyms

    * food

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    victual

    English

    Alternative forms

    * victuall (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Food fit for human consumption.
  • * Knolles
  • He was not able to keep that place three days for lack of victual .
  • * Tennyson
  • There came a fair-hair'd youth, that in his hand / Bare victual for the movers.
  • (Scotland) grain of any kind
  • Verb

  • To provide with food; to provision.
  • To lay in food supplies.
  • To eat.