alimentary, a. (and n.)
(ælɪˈmɛntərɪ)
[ad. L. alimentāri-us; f. aliment-um: see aliment and -ary.]
1. Of the nature of aliment; alimental; nutritious.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 30 To restraine the word Humors to the Alimentarie, and not to include the Excrementitious. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 513 The alimentary Juyce passes through the Umbilical vessels. 1746 R. James Introd. Mouffet & B's Health's Impr. (1746) 25 Milk loses..a great deal of its alimentary Virtues, if once boiled. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 27 Dependent therefore upon ciliary action for the injection of alimentary matter. |
2. Concerned with the function of nutrition. alimentary canal: the whole channel or passage through the body for receiving and digesting food and ejecting excrementitious matter.
| 1620 Venner Via Recta Introd. 8 There are some..waters, not to be allowed for alimentary vses. 1733 G. Cheyne Eng. Mal. ii. viii. §5 (1734) 196 The Alimentary tubes being the first sensible Sufferers in all Bodily Maladies. 1842 Wilson Anat. Vade Mec. 508 The Alimentary canal is a musculo-membranous tube, extending from the mouth to the anus. 1865 L. F. Simpson Dining ii. (ed. 3) 27 Physics and chemistry have been called in to the aid of the alimentary art. |
3. Connected with sustenance or maintenance; providing maintenance.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl., Alimentary Law was an old law among the Romans, whereby children were obliged to find sustenance for their parents. 1831 Southey in Q. Rev. XLV. 423 An alimentary pension from his family. 1875 Merivale Gen. Hist. Rome lxv. (1877) 524 Supplying the necessities of the Italians by alimentary endowments. |
† 4. Depending on the maintenance of others; supported by charity or public provision. Obs.
| 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Trajan was the first that brought up any of these alimentary boys. |
† B. n. An almsman. Obs.
| ? 1617 Minsheu (in Wright), An Alimentarie, he to whom a man giveth his meat and drinke by his last will. |