FEEDER

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does feeder mean? 

• FEEDER (noun)
  The noun FEEDER has 6 senses:

1. an animal being fattened or suitable for fattening

2. someone who consumes food for nourishment

3. a branch that flows into the main stream

4. a machine that automatically provides a supply of some material

5. an outdoor device that supplies food for wild birds

6. an animal that feeds on a particular source of food

  Familiarity information: FEEDER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEEDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An animal being fattened or suitable for fattening

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("feeder" is a kind of...):

domestic animal; domesticated animal (any of various animals that have been tamed and made fit for a human environment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who consumes food for nourishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

eater; feeder

Hypernyms ("feeder" is a kind of...):

consumer (a person who uses goods or services)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "feeder"):

devourer (someone who eats greedily or voraciously)

diner (a person eating a meal (especially in a restaurant))

dunker (an eater who dips food into a liquid before eating it)

glutton; gourmand; gourmandizer; trencherman (a person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess)

gobbler (a hasty eater who swallows large mouthfuls)

luncher (someone who is eating lunch)

mouth (a person conceived as a consumer of food)

mycophage; mycophagist (a person or animal who eats fungi (especially mushrooms))

nosher; snacker (someone who eats lightly or eats snacks between meals)

omnivore (a person who eats all kinds of foods)

picknicker; picnicker (a person who is picnicking)

gorger; scoffer (someone who eats food rapidly and greedily)

vegetarian (eater of fruits and grains and nuts; someone who eats no meat or fish or (often) any animal products)

Derivation:

feed (take in food; used of animals only)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A branch that flows into the main stream

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

affluent; confluent; feeder; tributary

Hypernyms ("feeder" is a kind of...):

branch (a stream or river connected to a larger one)

Derivation:

feed (feed into; supply)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A machine that automatically provides a supply of some material

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

feeder; self-feeder

Context example:

the feeder discharged feed into a trough for the livestock

Hypernyms ("feeder" is a kind of...):

machine (any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks)

Derivation:

feed (introduce continuously)

feed (give food to)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An outdoor device that supplies food for wild birds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bird feeder; birdfeeder; feeder

Hypernyms ("feeder" is a kind of...):

device (an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An animal that feeds on a particular source of food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Context example:

a mud feeder

Hypernyms ("feeder" is a kind of...):

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

 Context examples 

For human embryonic stem cell culture, typical feeder layers include mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) or human embryonic fibroblasts that have been treated to prevent them from dividing.

(Feeder layer, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

He's a foul feeder, is Mr. Malone, a carrion eater, like all of his kind—porcus ex grege diaboli—a swine from the devil's herd.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The number of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that migrate between or beneath a co-cultured feeder cell layer and become trapped.

(Cobblestone Area-Forming Cells, NCI Thesaurus)

This stream in which he stood was a feeder to the Coppermine River, which in turn flowed north and emptied into Coronation Gulf and the Arctic Ocean.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A pipe containing multiple feeder pipes, especially the exhaust pipe that connects to each cylinder of an engine.

(Header Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

Interleukin-6 (IL-6), a glycoprotein produced by activated T-cells and a variety of other cells, induces the production of IgM by B-cells and can be used to replace feeder cells for the growth and maintenance of B-cell hybridomas in vitro.

(Interleukin-6, NCI Thesaurus)

Stukel and his team found that some groups of particle-feeding organisms may influence carbon transport as much as more abundant suspension-feeders like krill, which dine on floating organic matter closer to the ocean's surface.

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)

Unlike its better-known relatives, the Great white shark and other predatory sharks, the whale shark is a filter feeder, meaning that it draws water into its mouth and extracts small organisms from the liquid.

(New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities, Wikinews)

Sharks have a reputation as ravenous hunters and apex predators, but new analysis of fossil records shows that some of the earliest sharks might have been filter feeders, taking in water through their mouths and catching food particles — think less great white and more anchovy, another filter feeder.

(Ancient sharks likely more diverse than previously thought, National Science Foundation)

On Earth, worms and clams that live in the muddy sea beds require 1 mg per liter, bottom feeders such as crabs and oysters 3 mg per liter, and spawning migratory fish 6 mg per liter, all within 0.2 moles per cubic meter, 6.4 mg per liter.

(Simple animals could live in Martian brines, Wikinews)