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Fodder vs Forage - What's the difference?

fodder | forage |

As nouns the difference between fodder and forage

is that fodder is food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc while forage is fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.

As verbs the difference between fodder and forage

is that fodder is to feed animals (with fodder) while forage is to search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.

fodder

English

Noun

  • Food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc.
  • * 1598? , William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona ,Act I, scene I:
    • The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd, the shepherd for food follows not the sheep.
  • A weight by which lead and some other metals were formerly sold, in England, varying from 19 1/2 to 24 cwt (993 to 1222 kg).; a fother.
  • * 1866 , James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England , Volume 1, p. 168:
    • Now measured by the old hundred, that is, 108 lbs. the charrus contains nearly 19 1/2 hundreds, that is it corresponds to the fodder, or fother, of modern times.
  • (slang, drafting, design) Tracing paper.
  • (figurative) Something which serves as inspiration or encouragement, especially for satire or humour.
  • * '>citation
    • According to the audio commentary on “Treehouse Of Horror III,” some of the creative folks at The Simpsons were concerned that the “Treehouse Of Horror” franchise had outworn its welcome and was rapidly running out of classic horror or science-fiction fodder to spoof.
  • (cryptic crosswords) The text to be operated on (anagrammed, etc.) within a clue.
  • * 2009 , "Colin Blackburn", another 1-off cryptic clue.'' (on newsgroup ''rec.puzzles.crosswords )
    • In (part of) Shelley's poem Ozymandias is a "crumbling statue". If this is the explanation then the clue is not a reverse cryptic in the same was(SIC) as GEGS -> SCRAMBLED EGGS but a normal clue where where the fodder and anagrind are *both* indirect.
  • * 2012 , David Astle, Puzzled: Secrets and clues from a life in words
    • Insane Roman! (4)'' Look in ''-sane Roman'' and you'll uncover NERO, the ''insane Roman''. Dovetailing the signpost — ''in'' — with the hidden fodder — ''sane Roman — is inspired, an embedded style of signposting.

    Synonyms

    * (animal food) provender

    Derived terms

    * cannon fodder * fodder radish

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (dialect) To feed animals (with fodder).

    • Anagrams

    *

    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