What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Forage vs Feed - What's the difference?

forage | feed |

As nouns the difference between forage and feed

is that forage is fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses while feed is (uncountable) food given to (especially herbivorous) animals.

As verbs the difference between forage and feed

is that forage is to search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses while feed is (lb) to give (someone or something) food to eat or feed can be (fee).

forage

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.
  • * 1819 , :
  • “The hermit was apparently somewhat moved to compassion by the anxiety as well as address which the stranger displayed in tending his horse; for, muttering something about provender left for the keeper's palfrey, he dragged out of a recess a bundle of forage , which he spread before the knight's charger.
    (Dryden)
  • An act or instance of foraging.
  • * Shakespeare
  • He [the lion] from forage will incline to play.
  • * Marshall
  • Mawhood completed his forage unmolested.
  • * 1860 September, “A Chapter on Rats”, in , volume 56, number 3, page 304:
  • ‘My dears,’ he discourses to them — how he licks his gums, long toothless, as he speaks of his forages into the well-stored cellars:
  • (obsolete) The demand for fodder etc by an army from the local population
  • Verb

    (forag)
  • To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.
  • * 1841 , , The Deerslayer , Chapter 8:
  • The message said that the party intended to hunt and forage through this region, for a month or two, afore it went back into the Canadas.
  • To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.
  • * 1599 , , Henry V , Act 1, Scene 2:
  • And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, / Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, / Making defeat on the full power of France, / Whiles his most mighty father on a hill / Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp / Forage in blood of French nobility.
  • To rummage.
  • * 1898 , , The Wrecker :
  • Using the blankets for a basket, we sent up the books, instruments, and clothes to swell our growing midden on the deck; and then Nares, going on hands and knees, began to forage underneath the bed.

    Derived terms

    * forager

    feed

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) feden, from (etyl) through Indo-European. More at (l), (l).

    Verb

  • (lb) To give (someone or something) food to eat.
  • :
  • *Bible, (w) xii.20:
  • *:If thine enemy hunger, feed him.
  • (lb) To eat (usually of animals).
  • :
  • *
  • *:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶.
  • (lb) To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.
  • :
  • *2012 December 25 (airdate), (Steven Moffat), The Snowmen'' (''Doctor Who )
  • *:DR SIMEON: I said I'd feed you. I didn't say who to.
  • (lb) To give to a machine to be processed.
  • :
  • :
  • (lb) To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
  • *(Richard Knolles) (1545-1610)
  • *:feeding him with the hope of liberty
  • To supply with something.
  • :
  • To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.
  • :
  • *Mortimer
  • *:Once in three years feed your mowing lands.
  • To pass to.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Kevin Darlin, work=BBC
  • , title= West Brom 1-3 Blackburn , passage=Morrison then played a pivotal role in West Brom's equaliser, powering through the middle and feeding Tchoyi, whose low, teasing right-wing cross was poked in by Thomas at the far post}}
  • To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply.
  • :
  • Noun

  • (uncountable) Food given to (especially herbivorous) animals.
  • They sell feed , riding helmets, and everything else for horses.
  • Something supplied continuously.
  • a satellite feed
  • The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.
  • the paper feed of a printer
  • (countable) A gathering to eat, especially in quantity
  • They held a crab feed on the beach.
  • (Internet) Encapsulated online content, such as news or a blog, that can be subscribed to.
  • I've subscribed to the feeds of my favourite blogs, so I can find out when new posts are added without having to visit those sites.
    Derived terms
    * atom feed * data feed * live Internet feed * Internet feed * RSS feed, syndication feed * Web feed

    Derived terms

    * bite the hand that feeds one * chicken feed * feed dog * feeding frenzy * feed one's face * feedstock * * misfeed * off one's feed * overfeed * underfeed

    Etymology 2

    + -(e)d