feeding

«feeding» in Mova's school dictionary: the act of giving food to a person or an animal — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (feeding, feedings); verb form (feeding, from feed: feed, feeds, fed, feeding)

meaning for a pupil

1) Feeding is the act of giving food to a person or an animal. tree →

2) Feeding is when an animal or person eats. tree →

3) A feeding is one meal given to a baby or animal, like the night feeding. tree →

4) Feeding can also mean the food that an animal eats. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life children help with feeding pets: fresh water every day and the right food, not too much. At the zoo, «feeding time» is when keepers feed the animals; signs say «Please do not feed the animals», because human food can make them ill. In science, feeding relationships are shown in food chains (the rabbit feeds on grass, the fox feeds on the rabbit). Baby birds and babies need feeding often. «Feeding the ducks» with bread is not good for them; peas or oats are better.

examples

• I'm in charge of feeding the cat. tree →
• Please do not feed the animals. tree →
• The baby needs feeding every three hours. tree →
• We watched the penguins at feeding time. tree →
• Caterpillars spend all day feeding on leaves. tree →
• Feeding bread to ducks is bad for them. tree →
• The bird is feeding its chicks. tree →
• Garlic would be fine feeding for her.’ tree →

note

Verb: feed, fed, fed (not «feeded»), feeding. «Feed on» = eat as food (bees feed on nectar). Compare «food» (the thing) and «feed» (the action, or animal food). «Fed up» means bored or annoyed.

In the corpora

• A newborn baby needs feeding every two or three hours, day and night, because its stomach is tiny.
• The idea that goldfish remember things for only 3 seconds is a myth: experiments show they remember feeding times and tricks for months.
• Feeding huge crowds of pigeons with bread makes too many pigeons, and birds packed in crowds spread mess and illness more easily.
• Goldfish can remember things for months and learn feeding times; the three-second memory is a myth.
• You ask the owner before touching or feeding a friend's pet, because the owner knows how it behaves.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «feeding» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.