feeder
/ˈfiːdə
/noun
1A person or animal that eats a particular food or in a particular manner: a plankton feeder...
- All squids are highly predatory, they are big feeders on crustacean, fish.
- The whale shark, the biggest fish on earth, is a plankton feeder and harmless to divers.
- Unlike most starfish which are actively carnivorous, it is thought to be a plankton feeder.
2A container filled with food for birds or mammals.My mother was in the background that afternoon, doing the brunch dishes and offering more coffee, weeding the garden and filling the bird feeder....
- Take over a bird feeder and keep it filled with birdseed.
- You could build bird tables, nest boxes or bird feeders, plant some wildlife friendly plants, and put out food and water.
2.1British A child’s feeding bottle.
2.2British A bib for an infant.
2.3 Fishing short for swimfeeder.Feeder fishing with a groundbait feeder and bread hook bait often produces good bags of bream from this section....
- There are situations however when a big bodied waggler can outscore the feeder.
- I prefer the groundbait feeder with bread in clear water, switching to the block end filled with maggots in coloured water.
3A person or thing that supplies something, in particular:Feeding activity is monitored in a range of sessile filter feeders by direct observation of feeding structures....
- In technical news, I added an updated RSS feeder from the good folks over at feedburner.
- Normally I will use a quiver feeder rod fitted with the lightest tip.
3.1A device supplying material to a machine: the automatic sheet feeder holds up to 10 sheets of paper...
- Material entering the feeder becomes locked between the disks and is conveyed around to a discharge point as the spool rotates.
- He didn't have to worry about checking the feeder's supply.
- The normal wire feeder and power supply used for aluminum welding will be suitable for welding magnesium.
3.2A tributary stream.She wondered why salmon were disappearing from the little creek behind her house, a feeder stream of the Columbia River....
- I am aware that otters, an excellent indicator of good water quality, are returning to the feeder stream and the lake that Mr Dixon alleges is being poisoned.
- With the first big rain of the year, a torrent of mud, silt, and debris had swept down the feeder stream.
3.3 [usually as modifier] A branch road or railway line linking outlying districts with a main communication system.They are the main feeder routes into national roads....
- First introduced on the main feeder roads to Dublin, the turnpike system spread rapidly.
- Poor marketing systems, a poor feeder road network, inadequate extension services accessed by farmers and inadequate inputs have hampered agricultural development.
3.4A main carrying electricity to a distribution point.The two feeders supplying the town with power transmit through the diesel generation station at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Front Street....
- He said after the demand for irrigation of paddy crop was met in the next couple of days, normal power supply to urban feeders would be restored.
- Stay on the line if you want to report a fallen powerline or live on a rural feeder and have lost power supply.
3.5 [usually as modifier] A school, sports team, etc. from which members move on to one more advanced: a sixth-form college and its feeder schools...
- It's moving toward becoming a feeder league, like, for instance, Uruguay - but without the big crowds.
- Professional soccer needs to set up a system much like major league baseball's farm teams, feeder clubs from which local heroes can create a fan base as they move up the ladder.
- The association's aim is to provide coaching support for teachers at Ilkley Grammar School and its feeder primary schools to make competitive rugby more widely available to young people in the community.
