supply

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To provide (something), to make (something) available for use.

   to supply money for the war

2. 2
   verb

   To furnish or equip with.

   to supply a furnace with fuel; to supply soldiers with ammunition

3. 3
   verb

   To fill up, or keep full.

   Rivers are supplied by smaller streams.

4. 4
   verb

   To compensate for, or make up a deficiency of.

   It was objected against him that he had never experienced love. Whereupon he arose, left the society, and made it a point not to return to it until he considered that he had supplied the defect.

5. 5
   verb

   To serve instead of; to take the place of.

   Burning ships the banished sun supply.

6. 6
   verb

   To fill temporarily; to serve as substitute for another in, as a vacant place or office; to occupy; to have possession of.

   to supply a pulpit

7. 7
   noun

   An amount of something supplied.

   A supply of good drinking water is essential.

8. 8
   noun

   The market force that causes sellers to be both willing and able to sell a good or service, as measured by the amount of that good or service that is currently available to be bought at any given price point; the amount itself.

   Supply and demand ebb and flow in a complex interplay.

Etymology

From Middle English supplien, borrowed from Old French soupleer, souploier, from Latin suppleo (“to fill up, make full, complete, supply”). The Middle English spelling was modified to conform to Latin etymology.