overfeed

B2 Topic:Food & Drink
US /ˌoʊvɚˈfiːd/ UK /ˌəʊvəˈfiːd/
verb Freq #119813

Meanings

  1. 1
    verb

    to give a person or animal more food than is healthy or necessary

    Be careful not to overfeed the puppy.

  2. 2
    verb

    to supply a machine or process with too much material

    Workers must not overfeed the furnace with fuel.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 verb · to give a person or animal... feed excessivelystufffatten
2 verb · to supply a machine or... oversupplyoverloadflood
Opposites
underfeedstarve
Word family
Forms overfed
Derived forms overfedoverfeedingoverfeeder
Related forms feedovereatingnutrition

Etymology

A transparent English compound of over-, ‘too much,’ and feed. The literal feeding sense later extended to machines and processes supplied with excessive material.

Topics

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