▪ I. food, n.
(fuːd)
Forms: 1 fóda, 2–6 fode, 3 south. vode, (4 fod), 3–6 fud(e, (4 Sc. fute, 5 fotte, foyde, fudde, Sc. fwde, 6 fooade, Sc. fuid, fuode), 4–6 foode, 6– food.
[OE. fóda wk. masc.; the exact equivalent (:—OTeut. type *fôđon-) does not occur elsewhere; the synonymous ON. fœ́ðe str. neut., fœ́ða wk. fem. (Sw. föda fem., Da. föde), and Goth. fôdeins str. fem., are derivatives of the cognate vb. OTeut. *fôđjan to feed. The Teut. root *fađ, fôđ (whence also fodder and the cognates there mentioned) represents OAryan *pā̆t-, whence Gr. πατέεσθαι, to feed.]
1. a. What is taken into the system to maintain life and growth, and to supply the waste of tissue; aliment, nourishment, provisions, victuals.
| c 1000 ælfric Sigew. Interr. in Anglia VII. 34 On þære oðre fleringe wæs heora nytena foda ᵹeloᵹod. a 1225 Ancr. R. 260 He hefde uode ase ueol to him. a 1300 Cursor M. 23084 (Cott.), I was hungre, yee gaf me fode. 1375 Barbour Bruce x. 189 Syndri cornys that thai bair Woxe rype to wyn to mannys fude. a 1400–50 Alexander 1174 Him moneste..to send..fode for his oste. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. xii. §5 Men at their owne home take common foode. a 1687 Waller Upon Roscommon's Hor. 57 They [Bees] give us food, which may with nectar vie. 1789 G. White Selborne Let. xv, Worms are their usual food. 1798 Malthus Popul. (1890) 288 Want of food..the most efficient cause of the three immediate checks to population. 1860–1 F. Nightingale Nursing 46 A tea-cupful of some article of food. |
b. What is edible, as opposed to ‘drink.’
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 160 Some food we had and some fresh water. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 790 Simple his Bev'rage, homely was his Food. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 516 The crews had better food and drink than they had ever had before. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1138 And wine and food were brought. |
† c. Sustenance, ‘livelihood’.
Obs.| a 1066 Charter of Eadward (MS. 14th c.) in Cod. Dipl. IV. 214 Ic wille ðat ðæt cotlif..ðe Leofcild..bequað Crist and sainte Peter into Westminstre ligge unðder into ðare munece fodan ellswa he hit geuðe. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xviii. 19 Peter fysshed for hus fode and hus fere Andreu. 1548 Forrest Pleas. Poesye 287 Which such may compell to earn their Fooade. a 1605 Montgomerie Sonn. xlvii, He that..to mak faggots for his fuid is fane. |
d. Phrases:
to be food for (an animal, worms): to be a prey to, to be devoured by.
to be food for fishes: to be drowned.
food for powder: fit only to be shot at or to die in battle.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 276 Ne schalt tu beon wurmes fode? 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. ii. 71 Good enough to tosse: foode for Powder, foode for Powder: they'le fill a Pit, as well as better. Ibid. v. iv. 86 Hot. No Percy, thou art dust And food for— Prin. For Wormes, braue Percy. 1601 ― A.Y.L. ii. vi. 7. 1894 Rider Haggard Mr. Meeson's Will xxii, He was food for fishes now, poor fellow. |
e. An article of food; a kind of food.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 26, I you shall reherce, How that my fodes ben diverse. c 1449 Pecock Repr. iii. v. 303 Hauyng foodis..be we content. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 5 b, God sent from heuen a swete fode for theyr brede called manna. 1617 Markham Caval. i. 56 In England..we have so many choyces of good foodes. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. iv. (1677) 45 The larger the Pike the courser the food. 1754 Dict. Arts & Sc. II. 1288 Foods proper for preserving health. 1887 Cassell's Fam. Physician 911 What are the proper fuels, or foods, with which to supply it [the human machine]. |
2. a. With reference to plants: That which they absorb from the earth and air; nutriment.
| 1759 tr. Duhamel's Husb. i. i. (1762) 3 The proper food of the plant. 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. iii. (ed. 2) 5 The vegetation of plants is promoted by communicating to the earth their food. 1869 Roscoe Elem. Chem. (1878) 372 Plants possess the peculiar power of selection, by the roots, of the mineral constituents of food. |
b. transf., as in
skin food.
| 1898 H. A. Browning Beauty Culture vii. 134 Let me, however, warn you to study your skin (and not to choose its ‘food’ hastily or casually). Ibid. x. 221 The face..is smeared with skin-food. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 537/1 Skin food. Massage & complexion cream. Ibid. 538/3 Squaw hair food. 1908 Queen 30 May 932/1 The introducer of the Russian skin food Valaze is Dr. Lyruski. 1912 Ibid. 30 Nov. 1006/1 It is a skin food in the truest sense and really works wonders with the skin. 1942 N. Marsh Death & Dancing Footman ii. 43 A fat lot of good ‘Hersey's Skin Food’ is to your middle-aged charms. |
3. fig. a. (In early use applied more widely than is now admissible.)
| c 1000 in Thorpe Ags. Hom. II. 396 Gif he hi forlæt buton ðam godspellican fodan on heora andᵹite. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 63 Swa bi-houeð þe saule fode, mid godes wordes mid gode mode. a 1300 Cursor M. 29058 (Cott.) Þat þi fast to saul fode mai falle. a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxxvii. 2 Trauels..are now fode til soul. c 1430 Hymns Virg. (1867) 14 God, þou be my strengist fode. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxii. 54 His face, the fude of angellis fre. 1538 Starkey England 55 Nuryschyd wyth the spiritual fode of hys celestyal word. 1595 Shakes. John iii. iv. 104 My faire sonne, My life, my ioy, my food, my all the world. 1600 ― A.Y.L. iv. iii. 102 Orlando..Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancie. 1713 Steele Englishm. No. 10. 67 Praise is the Food of a great Soul. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 620 Such is all the mental food purveyed By public hackneys in the schooling trade. 1801 Wordsw. Sonn. To Liberty i. iv, What food Fed his first hopes? 1891 Edin. Rev. July 132 Fiction is the only intellectual food of thousands. |
b. In sense of: Matter to discuss or dwell upon.
| 1780 Burke Corr. (1844) II. 347 Our own manners afford food enough for poetry. 1825 Southey Tale of Paraguay iii. 19 A lively tale, and fraught With..food for thought. 1834 L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 83 There the reflective will find food for their meditations. |
4. transf. † a. Material for keeping up a fire.
| a 1050 Lib. Scintill. x. (1889) 56 Foda fyres holt. a 1225 Ancr. R. 150 Bowes..to none þinge betere þen to fures fode. |
b. = shoddy: (see
quot.).
| 1857 C. B. Robinson in Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) Gloss. s.v., The entire substance that falls on the floor being called ‘shoddy’ or ‘food’, and being sold at a high rate for top dressing grass land. |
† 5. The act of eating.
in food: while eating or feeding.
Obs.| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 894 Wið bredes fode and wines drinc. a 1400–50 Alexander 2 Fayn wald þai here Sum farand þing efter fode to fayn þare her[t]. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 83 In food, in sport..To be disturb'd, would mad or man, or beast. |
† 6. That which is fed; a child, offspring. Also in wider sense: A creature, person, man.
Obs. In early use also
collect., a brood, race.
Cf. OF. norriture,
nourriture,
med.Lat. nutrimentum, a young animal.
| a 1250 Owl & Night. 94 Þu fedest on heom a wel ful fode. a 1300 Cursor M. 682 (Cott.) Fouxl o flight, and fiss on sand..com and ȝode, Als he war fader o þair fode. a 1300 K. Horn 1384 Aþulf þe gode, Min oȝene child, mi leve fode. 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 578 Men mycht se mony frely fute About the costis thar lukand. c 1400 Ywaine & Gaw. 1621 So fals a fode, Was never cumen of Kynges blode. ? c 1475 Sqr. lowe Degre 364 in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 37, I may not beleue..My doughter dere he wyll betraye..That fode to long with no foly. c 1485 Digby Myst. iii. 942, I have a favorows fode, and fresse as the fakown. |
7. attrib. and
Comb. a. simple
attrib., as
food-crank,
food-faddist,
food habit,
food-pan,
food parcel,
food product,
food queue,
food-shortage,
food-supply,
food tax,
food-ticket,
food-truck; in sense of ‘fit or used for food’, as
food-bird,
food-fish,
food-grain,
food-plant,
food-stuff,
food-substance.
| 1879 H. George Progr. & Pov. ii. iii. (1881) 116 If he but shoot hawks, *food-birds will increase. |
| 1906 J. Condon Let. 17 Nov. (1966) 220 Don't think I am some sort of a *food-crank. 1951 R. Campbell Light on Dark Horse 150 Any Fabian food-crank. |
| 1910 Daily Chron. 14 Apr. 4/2 The ‘*food faddists’ or ‘food reformers’. 1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 38 Some of the food-faddists went beyond the vegetarian stage and became fruitarians. 1953 A. Christie Pocket Full of Rye viii. 47 One of those food faddists who'll eat any mortal thing so long as it isn't cooked. 1970 Guardian 15 Aug. 6/6 Top pundits tend to make fun of food faddists. |
| 1865 J. G. Bertram (title) The harvest of the sea. A contribution to the natural and economic history of the British *food fishes. 1884 S. E. Dawson Handbk. Canada 334 Herring, haddock and other food-fishes are abundant. |
| 1880 C. R. Markham Peruv. Bark 486 This remarkable *food grain might doubtless be usefully cultivated in the Himalayas. |
| 1927 Maclean's Mag. 1 June 32/1 *Food habits are important. |
| 1871 Alabaster Wheel of Law 149 He..took his *food-pan, and went and sat under the shade of the great banyan tree. |
| 1919 E. H. Jones Road to En-dor v. 52 He was comfortable enough himself (thanks to the contents of our *food parcels). 1946 J. B. Priestley Bright Day x. 310 He'd been sending some food parcels to his sister in England. 1967 Guardian 5 Sept. 7/5 The poorest depending on cash grants and food parcels from Turkey. |
| 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 208 Novel and valuable *food-plants. |
| 1897 Daily News 6 Mar. 6/4 The Select Committee on *food products adulteration. 1906 Daily Chron. 5 June 5/4 To enable Government inspectors to supervise, from hoof to can, the preparation of meat food-products. |
| 1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 5 Jan. 3 There is nothing more irksome and more damaging to a smooth-running war system than local shortages and *food queues. |
| 1931 J. S. Huxley What dare I think? iv. 135 *Food-shortage..will..bring about an equilibrium. 1965 M. Hilton tr. Meuvret in Pop. in Hist. xxi. 511 Movements undertaken to escape regions experiencing food-shortage. |
| 1872 Huxley Phys. vi. 138 *Food-stuffs have been divided into heat-producers and tissue-formers. |
| 1881 W. D. Hay 300 Years Hence i. 4 Inquiries about..*food supply and so on. 1957 P. Worsley Trumpet shall Sound vi. 120 The Japanese organized work-teams..to cultivate huge gardens for their own and the natives' food-supply. |
| 1906 *Food-tax [see food-taxer below]. 1913 Punch 22 Jan. 67 Food taxes. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 12 Oct. 13/1 The *food-ticket is invaluable, when money might prove a danger. 1909 Ibid. 30 Jan. 2/2, I felt also bound to refuse the gift of a food-ticket until their cases had been investigated. 1937 Koestler Spanish Testament ii. 55 The revolutionary committees issued food tickets which the shopkeepers were obliged to honour. |
| 1886 Longm. Mag. VII. 329 The *food-truck which has now for two years been supported by the readers of Longman's Magazine. |
b. objective, as
food-chopper,
food-gatherer,
food-grower,
food-mixer,
food-taxer;
food-collecting,
food-gathering (see also 8),
food-getting,
food-taxing;
food-producing ppl. adj.| 1908 Sears, Roebuck Catal. 468/1 Enterprise *food chopper..will chop raw meat, cooked meat, vegetables. 1911 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 6 Apr. 3/1 (Advt.), Meant to save and sure to please bargains we are offering Food Choppers, $1.75 kind..$1.25. |
| 1911 J. A. Thompson Biol. Seasons iii. 294 The marked shortening of the daylight hours available for *food-collecting. 1932 E. Step Bees, Wasps, Ants 4 When she [sc. the bee] is not making food-collecting excursions, she sits upon the cell. |
| 1865 Gosse Land & Sea 153 The pseudopodia are *food-gatherers as well as instruments of locomotion. |
| 1927 Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. xii. 288 The last task undertaken [by bees] before going out *food-gathering is that of sentry-duty. |
| 1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man xiv. 278 Practical activities of communal existence such as *food-getting and war. |
| 1841 S. Smith in Mem. (1855) II. 457 Neither butcher, nor baker, nor *food-grower. |
| 1959 Observer 19 Apr. 14/3 There are over a dozen brands of *food mixers on the market. 1961 Times 26 Apr. 25/4 Domestic appliances such as..food-mixers. |
| 1870 Bryant Iliad II. xiv. 59 Lay one hand Upon the *food-producing earth. |
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 19 Aug. 5/1 Mr. Arnold-Forster a *food-taxer. 1906 Daily Chron. 13 Feb. 4/2 There was something for the Food-taxers also, for..the matter of food-taxes is ‘not a question of principle’. |
| 1905 Ibid. 25 Mar. 7/4 This *food-taxing policy. |
8. Special comb.:
food additive, a substance added to food so as to improve its colour, flavour, or preservation, or for any other non-nutritional purpose;
food-call, the cry of a bird for food; also
transf.;
food-card, a card used in the rationing of food to indicate the amount of food allowed to a person for a specified period of time;
food-chain Ecology, a series of organisms each dependent upon another for food,
esp. by direct predation;
food-chemist, one occupied in the analysis of foods;
food-controller, an official having control of food supplies;
food-cycle Ecology, an interdependent group of food-chains in a community;
† food-fit a., fit to be used as food;
food-gatherer,
spec. in
Anthropol., one who obtains food from natural sources rather than through agriculture, etc.; so
food-gathering n. and attrib.;
food-lift, a lift for the conveyance of food;
food-poisoning, any illness caused by the presence in food of harmful bacteria or toxic substances (as bacterial toxins or poisons from inedible plants);
food processor, an electrical kitchen appliance for mixing, chopping, shredding, and otherwise preparing foods for cooking or for the table;
food-rent (see
quot.);
† food-sick a., sick for want of food;
food stamp (see
quot. 1967);
food-value, value as food;
spec. in dietetics, the relative nourishing power assigned to foods; also
fig.;
food-vessel Archæol., a type of prehistoric pottery found in northern England (see
quot. 1963); applied
attrib. to the culture characterized by such pottery; also (
rare)
food-vase;
food-web = food-cycle;
food-yolk, the non-germinative part of the yolk of an egg, which nourishes the embryo.
| 1958 U.S. Statutes at Large (1959) LXXII. i. 2151 The petitioner shall furnish samples of the *food additive involved..and of the food in or on which the additive is proposed to be used. 1984 M. Hanssen E for Additives 8 Sugar and salt are perhaps the most common food additives and are very important in the preservation of foods. |
| 1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (1935) iii. xxxv. 207 Down the visible wind in the misted valley came the *food-call of Turkish bugles. 1949 Brit. Birds XLII. 236 She may utter food-calls as during incubation. 1956 Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles V. 196 The ‘food calls’ of the young..are uttered in excited chorus. |
| 1918 Times 6 Feb. 8/2 *Food cards taken out for children educated at boarding schools. 1923 E. A. Ross Russian Soviet Republ. 113 Bread- and food-cards of four different colors were issued to four class divisions of the population. Ibid. 114 In the spring of 1920 there were only eight thousand adults in Petrograd who had not taken out food-cards, i.e. had not gone to work. |
| 1927 C. Elton Anim. Ecol. v. 56 There are, in fact, chains of animals linked together by food, and all dependent in the long run upon plants. We refer to these as ‘*food-chains’, and to all the food chains in a community as the ‘food-cycle’. 1959 J. Clegg Freshwater Life (ed. 2) iv. 65 The algae provide the first link in the food-chain, utilising simple chemical substances in the water to build up their own structures; thereby making available abundant food for the lower animals. 1968 Times 17 Dec. 10/5 Birds of prey are particularly vulnerable..because of their position at the end of a food chain. For example, worms eat contaminated vegetation, sparrows eat worms, and peregrines eat sparrows. |
| 1916 Act 6 & 7 Geo. V c. 68 §3 For the purpose of economising and maintaining the food supply of the country during the present war, it shall be lawful for His Majesty to appoint a Minister of Food under the title of *Food Controller. |
| 1927 *Food-cycle [see food-chain]. 1963 J. E. G. Raymont Plankton & Productivity in Oceans xviii. 542 Food cycles in the oceans commence with the synthesis of organic material by the phytoplankton. |
| 1885 A. W. Blyth in Leisure Hour Jan. 24/2 A *food-chemist..laying down the principles of diet. |
| c 1611 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 423 As one same ground indifferently doth breed Both *food-fit Wheat and dizzie Darnell seed. |
| 1928 C. Dawson Age of Gods iii. 49 Man was entirely at the mercy of nature—a mere scavenger who eked out a miserable existence as a *food-gatherer and an eater of shell-fish. 1949 W. F. Albright Archaeol. of Palestine iii. 61 The Natufians were still essentially food-gatherers, in spite of their discovery of the cultivation of grain. 1960 K. M. Kenyon Archaeol. in Holy Land i. 19 The men of the period were dependent for their existence on the food they could gather by hunting, fishing and other natural sources; they were food-gatherers. |
| 1926 V. G. Childe Aryans v. 103 Men who had made the great advance from a *food-gathering to a food-producing economy. 1936 Proc. Prehist. Soc. II. 253 People dependent upon hunting, fishing and food-gathering tend everywhere to produce the same kind of art. 1958 Listener 30 Oct. 689/2 The food-gathering state when man was, economically at least, a savage like the early Eskimo. |
| 1898 A. Bennett Man fr. North xvi. 139 The screen which hid the *food-lift. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 167 A diner..stared towards the foodlift. |
| 1887 Practitioner Apr. 302 (heading) Report on *food poisoning at a wedding breakfast. 1917 E. O. Jordan Food Poisoning i. 2 Most attacks of food poisoning are usually of a slight and apparently temporary nature. 1951 Whitby & Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) ii. 15 Potassium permanganate is much used in the tropics to kill food-poisoning bacteria on vegetables. 1951 E. W. H. Cruikshank Food & Nutrition (ed. 2) xiv. 285 Food poisoning may also occur..by the ingestion of poisonous plants. 1970 Daily Tel. 6 May 19/8 A doctor is only compelled to notify the health authorities of certain infectious diseases and cases of food poisoning. |
| 1974 House Beautiful July 40/2 The food machine that does nearly everything is the innovative *Food Processor made by Cuisinarts. 1979 Sunset Apr. 128/1 (Advt.), Here's a food processor you can't go wrong with—literally. Because this food processor has a mistake-proof computer built right in. |
| 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. vi. 160 The rent in kind, or *food-rent. |
| 1587 Mirr. Mag., Sir N. Burdet xxxii, When facing foysters fit for Tiburne frayes Are *food-sicke faynt. |
| 1962 Economist 28 Apr. 363/2 The 146,000 certified [American] needy now receiving *food-stamps. 1967 Ibid. 15 July 214/3 The other ‘anti-hunger’ device, the Food Stamp Programme, allows families to purchase stamps at substantially less than their face value and use them to buy food at their local shops. 1970 Guardian 31 Mar. 11/1 The flower children fled to communes in New Mexico where pot is plentiful and Federal food stamps prevent starvation. |
| 1899 E. G. White Counsel to Editors (1939) xxi. 104 Everything that the imaginative mind can think of is woven into the book, and presented to the world as mental food. But very often it has no *food value. 1907 Chamber's Jrnl. 29 June 495 The York Health and Housing Reform Association has published a table of food-values. 1909 Ibid. Jan. 6/2 The average Chinese and Japanese diet is rather richer in food-values than the average American. 1915 Lit. Digest (N.Y.) 4 Sept. 479/2 (Advt.), A nourishing and appetizing first course like..Tomato Soup..contributes rich food-value. 1960 C. Storr Marianne & Mark iii. 35 Aunt Pamela, though..no expert on food values, was immensely keen on providing a good mixed diet. |
| 1871 Archaeologia XLIII. 385 One of the four *food-vases..is ornamented with fine punctures at the bottom. 1963 H. N. Savory in Foster & Alcock Culture & Environment iii. 34 The rim of a Corded Beaker, part of a jar with a rim deeply bevelled internally, which Piggott hailed as a possible ancestor of the southern ‘Food-vase’. |
| 1871 Archaeologia XLIII. 378 *Food vessels are rare in the barrows of Wiltshire and the South of England. 1930 F. Elgee Early Man in N.E. Yorks. viii. 68, I shall first describe the food-vessel skeleton burials. Ibid. 70 Burials in which no pottery was present, but which are nevertheless characteristic of the food-vessel period. 1963 E. S. Wood Collins Field Guide Archaeol. i. iv. 62 In the North the ‘Food Vessel’ culture absorbed very obviously many of the traditions of the secondary neolithic and Beaker peoples, and produced a somewhat coarse pottery, with neck and shoulder, and much ornament in bands and panels, from which it takes its name. |
| 1961 Estuarine Bull. VI. 12 (title) Sand shrimp: cross-link in an estuarine *food web. 1971 Nature 1 Jan. 14/1 Important links in the food web of the sea. |
| 1851 Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 474 Animals which are provided with a ‘*food-yolk’. |
Add:
[8.] food irradiation = *
irradiation n. 9 a.
| 1953 Food Technol. VII. 7 (caption) Plan view of *food irradiation building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1977 Business Week 11 July 38j/2 So far food irradiation has remained mostly in the laboratory. 1990 Silver & Vallely Young Person's Guide to saving Planet 63 No legislation has been passed to safeguard workers at potential food-irradiation plants. |
▸
food bank n. orig. N. Amer. a stock of food put aside for use in an emergency or shortage, or donated for use by poor people; (also) an organization which collects and distributes such food.
| 1918 McClure's Mag. Dec. 35/2 Surely, even though the food needs of our army and our Allies grow greater, for every measure of food needed.., we can put by an extra measure..for the *food bank. 1971 N.Y. Times 29 Nov. 23/1 A large number of those going to the food banks report..that public assistance payments do not provide enough for them to eat adequately. 1982 Times 12 Jan. 6/2 An Asian food bank is needed to improve deteriorating food supplies in Asia and the Pacific. 2004 Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Sept. b1/2 (heading) Food banks are witnessing a surge in the working poor who seek help. |
▸
food banking n. N. Amer. the action or practice of maintaining a stock of food; the operation of a food bank.
| 1913 Amer. Food Jrnl. July 308/1 The fond belief..that all manufacturers have learned wisdom and economy and are consequently eager to employ the efficient machinery of *food banking, assembling and distribution. 1998 Indianapolis Star 24 May j14/3 (advt.) Speakers are available to your workplace or organization to provide information about food banking and how you can help alleviate hunger in our community. |
▸
food-borne adj. (of a disease) carried by or transmitted through contaminated food.
| 1898 Atlanta Constit. 29 May 5/1 The writer does not believe that yellow fever is a water or *food borne disease. 1939 Sci. Monthly Jan. 71 The food-borne infections of man—typhoid and dysentery, for example—arise from the ingestion of food, water, milk, etc., to which the causative organism..has gained access and multiplied. 2003 C. Wanjek Bad Med. xvii. 94 Most bacterial infections in the United States are food borne: salmonella, listeria, and E. coli. |
▸
food coma n. U.S. colloq. a lethargic state induced by eating,
esp. a large quantity of (
freq. rich or unhealthy) food.
| 1991Re: Threesome in alt.sex.bondage (Usenet newsgroup) 5 Sept. After dinner, I was feeling sort of restless, and John was in a *food coma (Thanksgiving, you know. I'm vegetarian, so I don't get food comas as much—I was restless.). 1994 USA Today (Nexis) 3 Jan. 4 d, I eat 1,600 calories a day and 20 to 25 grams of fat except when I'm in New Orleans..where I wake up in a food coma. 2002 Los Angeles Times 24 Jan. t2 The restaurant tab arrives just as the wine and food coma sinks in. |
▸
food combining n. a system of eating or dieting based on William Hay's principle that certain foods,
esp. carbohydrates and proteins, should not be eaten together, as they are more easily digested separately (see
Hay n.7).
| 1951 H. Shelton Food Combining made Easy (1982) Introd. 8 Proper *food combining..assures better nutrition, as a consequence of better digestion of our foods. 2002 Charlotte (N. Carolina) Observer (Nexis) 4 Feb. 2 e Food-combining diets have gone in and out of style.., but there's no scientific evidence to support the idea that eating certain combinations of foods improves digestion. |
▸
food court n. orig. U.S. an area in a shopping mall, airport terminal, etc., containing a variety of fast-food outlets and a shared seating area for their customers.
| 1979 Los Angeles Times 25 Mar. ix. 16/1 Under that will be a stairway down to the lower level *food court. 1992 Industry Week 6 Apr. 74/1 The arena's food court, garage, and some other facilities will be open during non-event times to serve downtown office workers. 2002 Sawubona ((S. Afr. Airways In-flight Mag.)) Sept. 116/2 The development will include cinemas, food courts, a hotel with 160 luxury rooms and a variety of ‘white knuckle’ rides. |
▸
food desert n. Brit. a place in which it is difficult to buy food,
esp. a populated area containing few establishments selling cheap, nutritious, fresh food.
| 1988 Herald (Austral.) (Nexis) 9 Mar. (Taste section) 8 New Caledonia, surely more of a *food desert than anything outside five kilometres from the centre of Melbourne. 1997 Financial Times 13 Mar. 14/5 Some localities have also become ‘food deserts’, where independent shops and street markets have closed and poorer citizens without cars have difficulty reaching the ‘cathedrals of choice’ on the edges of towns, he says. 2002 Economist (Electronic ed.) 19 Jan. Many of these areas in Birmingham are now identified as ‘food deserts’: food retailers have moved out, either to up-market shops in the city centre or to out-of-town supermarkets. |
▸
food mile n. Brit. (as a unit of measurement) a mile over which a foodstuff is transported on its journey from producer to consumer;
usu. in
pl.| 1993 Independent 23 Oct. (Weekend section) 35/1 *Food miles..are part of the supermarket revolution. More than a third of the food we eat these days in Britain is imported. This produces an elongated food chain involving numerous intermediate links—processors, packers, hauliers. 1999T. Tang in G. Tansey & J. D'Silva Meat Business xii. 131 The food mile was invented to convey these complexities [sc. of food distribution] in a way that could make sense to people. 2002 Express (Nexis) 5 Sept. 51 A pizza may travel a few miles to your door, but its individual ingredients have already travelled 20,000 food miles on average. |
▪ II. † food, v. Obs. [f. prec. n.] trans. To supply food to; to feed, nourish, support.
| 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles ii. 135 Ȝe ffostrid and ffodid a ffewe of þe best. Ibid. iii. 52 And with hir corps keuereth him..And ffostrith and ffodith till ffedris schewe. |
¶ For the supposed
fig. sense ‘to beguile,’ see
fode v.