victuals

«victuals» in Mova's school dictionary: Food and drink, especially supplies of food for a journey… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (victuals, usually plural; verb: victual, victuals, victualled, victualling – rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) (old-fashioned) Food and drink, especially supplies of food for a journey or for many people. tree →

2) (verb, rare) To supply a ship or an army with food. tree →

sense in the lessons

An old word found in old stories and in The Wind in the Willows, where the animals speak of food and drink in grand old ways; sailors and armies needed victuals for long voyages. It makes speech sound old or funny. Today «vittles» (the same word, spelled as said) is used jokingly in the USA, especially in cowboy talk.

examples

• The sailors loaded the ship with victuals for the long voyage. tree →
• «Fetch the victuals!» cried the hungry pirate. tree →
• The innkeeper brought plenty of good victuals to the table. tree →
• The army ran short of victuals in the cold winter. tree →
• Grandad jokingly calls his dinner «my vittles». tree →
• The travellers packed bread, cheese and other victuals for the road. tree →
• "Sit down to table and swallow your victuals!" replied the old woman. tree →

note

A big spelling trap: it is spelled «victuals» but said «VIT-ulz» – the c and the u are silent. Usually plural. Not used in everyday modern speech except as a joke.

In the corpora

• The Rat: «He's always rather low and despondent when he's wanting his victuals.
• And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.
• Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase.
• And he inquired of the LORD for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'

Trees and pragmatics

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