provender

1. (dated) Food, especially for livestock.Examples: "The farm which supplied to him ungrudging provender had all his vast capacity for work in willing exercise …"; "He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed."; "Irregular, sporadic feeding and strange provender were beginning to take their toll, and I felt queasy at the thought of 'various curries' the Amat's clerk had promised for the first meal of the day."Synonyms: fodder, aliment, bait, belly-timber, chow, comestibles, cuisine, eatablesdateduncountableusually