Standard Lemma guide

provender

noun · verb · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɒvɪndə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈpɹɒvəndə/
  • General-American: /ˈpɹɑvəndɚ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Food, especially for livestock.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated, uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fodder, aliment, bait, belly-timber, chow, comestibles, cuisine, eatables, eats, edibles, feed, foodstuffs, food, grub, kai, meals, meat, munchable, nibbles, nosebag, nosh, nourishment, om nom nom, provender, provisions, rations, scran, stodge, sustenance, tiffin, tucker, tuck, viands, victuals, vittles

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To feed.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a stock or supply of foods

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: commissariat, provisions, viands, victuals

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: food, nutrient

Narrower terms: food cache, larder

4

noun

Meaning 4

food for domestic livestock

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: feed

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: food, nutrient

Narrower terms: blood meal, corn gluten feed, cattle cake, creep feed, fodder, feed grain, silage, ensilage, oil cake, slop, slops, swill, pigswill, pigwash, mash, cud, rechewed food, bird feed, bird food, birdseed, petfood, pet-food, pet food, mast, fish meal

History

Etymology

From Middle English provendre, from Old French provendre, variant of provende (“allowance, provision”), from Late Latin praebenda (“a payment, in Medieval Latin also an allowance of food and drink, pittance, also a prebend”). Doublet of prebend.

Across languages

Translations

16 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: фураж (furaž) — food, especially for livestock
  • Finnish: rehu — food, especially for livestock
  • Finnish: muona — food, especially for livestock
  • French: provende — food, especially for livestock
  • Italian: foraggio — food, especially for livestock
  • Italian: biada — food, especially for livestock
  • Italian: pastone — food, especially for livestock
  • Italian: viveri — food, especially for livestock
  • Italian: approvvigionamenti — food, especially for livestock
  • Occitan: provenda — food, especially for livestock
  • Romanian: furaj — food, especially for livestock
  • Romanian: nutreț — food, especially for livestock
  • Russian: корм (korm) — food, especially for livestock
  • Russian: зерно́ (zernó) — food, especially for livestock
  • Russian: фура́ж (furáž) — food, especially for livestock
  • Zazaki: alef — food, especially for livestock