nutrition
(njuːˈtrɪʃən)
[ad. L. type *nūtrītiōn-em, noun of action f. nūtrīre to nourish. So F. nutrition, Sp. nutricion, It. nutrizione.]
1. a. The action or process of supplying, or of receiving, nourishment.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 727 The bowels are mostwhat alike in all, both for Nutrition, Generation, Life and Sense. 1682 Grew Anat. Pl. Introd. 3 All these being formed, by continual Nutrition still to be increased. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 24 That the Spirits..are concern'd in Nutrition is plain enough. 1803 Malthus Popul. iv. i. (1806) II. 304 The kind of food, and the mode of preparing it, best suited to the purposes of nutrition. 1845 Day tr. Simon's Anim. Chem. I. 161 The metamorphosis of the plasma during the nutrition of every form of tissue. 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 178 Nutrition and functional activity are interdependent, the two falling off together. |
b. In figurative uses.
| 1551 Cranmer Answ. Gardiner 42 Our spiritual generation and our spiritual nutrition be..obscure and hyd vnto vs. 1624 Gataker Transubst. 160 The spirituall nutrition of soules living by grace. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxiv. 127 The Nutrition of a Common-wealth consisteth, in the Plenty, and Distribution of Materials conducing to Life. 1879 Fortn. Rev. Nov. 687 The self-preservative instinct of humanity rejects such art as does not contribute to its intellectual nutrition and moral sustenance. |
† c. (See quot., and cf. nutrite v.) Obs. rare.
| 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 273 Nutrition is the permistion of humidity by little and little, for the alteration of the quality of the medicament. 1727–38 [see nutritum]. |
2. That which nourishes; food, nutriment.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 671 Any thing that hath the nature of the superfluity or excrement of nutrition. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xiii. 298 Aiax..to none alive will yeeld..whose life takes Ceres nutritions. 1732 Pope Ess. Man ii. 64 Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. 1758 J. Wood Suppl. to Treat. Farriery 25 A Putrefaction of the stagnated Juices, whence the Parts are essentially deprived of all manner of Nutrition. 1868 Peard Water-farm. ix. 97 These articles of nutrition materially assist the growth of the infant brood. 1894 H. Drummond Ascent Man 272 Chemistry is devoting itself to the experiment of manufacturing nutrition. |
Hence nuˈtritional a.; nuˈtritionally adv.; nuˈtritionary a.
| a 1852 Macgillivray Nat. Hist. of Dee Side (1855) 462 That general condition of nutritionary activity, which is produced by the development of the reproductive powers of the system. 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 493 That these acids are most important nutritional agents no one can doubt. 1878 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. I. 558 Incapable of further growth or nutritional change. 1890 Cent. Dict., Nutritionally. 1922 Sci. Amer. July 42/3 A diet may furnish a sufficient amount of protein, fat, carbohydrates, salts and vitamins and yet fail to promote growth or sustain well-being unless the quality of protein is nutritionally adequate. 1949 M. Mead Male & Female x. 215 Foods all of which are suitable nutritionally. 1972 Which? Sept. 263/2 Nutritionally, there is not much difference between dairy and non-dairy [ice cream]. |