feed, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

feed n.

1. food and drink, usu. as served in a meal, esp. a substantial one.

1818		H.B. Fearon Sketches of America 192: I guess whiskey is all the feed we have on sale.
1825		T.E. Hook Sayings and Doings 2nd Ser. II i 278: The Colonel was to give a feed that day [...] a grand blow-out.
1832		in Egan Bk of Sports 157: A devilish fine blow-out and d—d good feed!
1840		Comic Almanack Feb. 213: The feed, as I say, went off very well.
1843		Bellew Memoirs of a Griffin I 120: ‘Have you been playing a knife and fork anywhere yet? been to any grand “feed”?’.
1852		A. Smith Comic Tales 2: Will you have a go-in at a drag to Epsom? It won’t come to much – about 2l. 10s. each, including feed.
1859		G.F. Atkinson Curry & Rice (3 edn) n.p.: [O]pinions that are expressed relative to the last night’s ‘feed’ at the Ganders [...] that the turkey was the leanest old bird in creation.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 131/1: What we call a mummer’s feed is potatoes and herrings.
1868		Melbourne Punch 12 Mar. 88/1: She alludes to meals as a ‘feed,’ and I think I once heard her speak of a dinner as a ‘blow-out,’ and a supper as a ‘tightener’.
1870		B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp (1873) 132: When the ‘Skyscraper’ arrived at San Francisco we had a grand ‘feed’.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 218: Now, once a year these worthies asked the Station to a feed.
1883		G.A. Sala in Illus. London News 7 July 3/1: To be able to escape from a large public feed is, indeed, a sweet boon; but there are some big dinners at which attendance is a case of must.
1885		J.S. Borlase Blue Cap, the Bushranger 65/1: First thing we want [...] is a feed.
1897		Boy’s Own Paper 6 Nov. 86: Oh, no, bother fireworks [...] Let’s have a good feed.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 17 Nov. 100: After you’d given a fellow a feed it didn’t seem nice to let him think you weren’t prepared to pay for it.
1903		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 1/1: Even if the ‘feed’ consisted only of fried fish and pickled cucumbers.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 86: The Swede, drunk, had bought her a feed of chop suey.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Dear Loaf’ Sporting Times 29 Jan. 1/4: She started out again, to give the market place a turn, / And to get the joint in for the Sunday feed.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 19 June 3rd sect. 17/5: The most slap-up feeds given in the whole city ot London are those of the Fishmongers’ Company.
1916		Firefly 9 Dec. 1: It was easy to get to fatty’s little feed that he had prepared for himself.
1919		Leigh & Collins [perf. Marie Lloyd] Don’t Dilly-dally on the Way 🎵 What I want now is a good substantial feed.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 238: I know a place where they’ll give us a decent little feed.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 67: He never had a decent feed in his life till he come here.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 237: I could do with a feed of real meat.
1958		D. Stivens Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 45: ‘What gives?’ he cried happily. ‘Lead me to a feed—I always work up an appetite in space.’.
1962		M.K. Joseph Pound of Saffron 177: You’re tight, you old goat. Come and have a feed.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 105: They put on a feed that was out of sight.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 10: After bogging in one can thank one’s hostess by declaring, ‘That was a bonzer feed, that was.’.
1996		(ref. to 1963) D. Healy Bend for Home 177: She fried us up a feed.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] Should he cook a feed at home, or go down the pub?
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Yakitori wasn’t a bad place to hang for a feed.
2016		N. Cummins Adventures of the Honey Badger [ebook] With all-new kit and a guaranteed feed three times a day [...] my arm didn’t need any twisting.

2. (US drugs) drugs.

1959

J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

In compounds

feed bag (n.)

see separate entry.

feed-box (n.) [horseracing imagery]

1. the mouth; see straight from the feed box under straight adv.

2. food, a meal.

1922

M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 26: This is the first time I’ve been in front of the feed box today.

feed joint (n.) [joint n. (3b)]

(US) a café or restaurant.

1909		R.A. Wason Happy Hawkins 304: We sidled into a feed-joint.
1916		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 43: (IS: Watching two hard boiled eggs try to make a getaway in a feed joint without slipping the waiter a tip) They’ve got those ‘one way’ pockets. You can only get the change in — it can’t come out.

feed stall (n.)

(N.Z.) a camp mess.

1907

‘A Cronk Camp’ Truth (Wellington) 19 Jan. 5: When they entered the feed stall the gang discovered a notice [...] to the effect that everything wasn’t permitted.

In phrases

off one’s feed (adj.) [horse stable jargon]

1. depressed, pining, nervous.

1824		Annals of Sporting 1 May 343: His backers declared [...] that ned ‘was off his feed’.
1825		Everyday Occurrences I 146: Little occurred during dinner, except such observations as — ‘Norny, my boy, you're off your feed : — a glass of Burgundy?’.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1834) 265: Shall I fill you a cup of coffee, Obed? [...] Why, man, you are off your feed.
1854		T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 20: [H]e contented himself with allusions to being ‘spooney,’ ‘off one's feed,’ [or] ‘Paul and Virginiaish’.
1861		Hills & Plains I 26: [T]hree subalterns [...] and an ensign who had spent a great deal more than he was likely to receive for many year were found to be ‘off their feed’ and in a distracted state of love .
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash II 218: No, Doctor; I’m off my feed for once.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		J. Payn Grape from a Thorn III 252: I wont take a rasher this morning, thank you; nor yet any pigeon pie. I’m rather off my feed.
1897		E.W. Townsend Chimmie Fadden 36: You’re off your feed, Chimmie,’ he says, ‘what’s ailing you?’.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 61: When we are slightly Off our Feed, we are likely to imagine that what we haven’t got and can’t get is the One Desirable Thing.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 691: Anyway love its not or hed be off his feed thinking of her.
1929		E. Booth Stealing Through Life 259: They’re just a bit off their feed.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 81: I noticed at dinner tonight you were a bit off your feed.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 406: He was feeling old, nervous, and off his feed.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 19: I’ve been off my feed for some little time now.
1958		H. Whittington Web of Murder (2000) 20: She’d said I was off my feed, that I snapped at her, that I never smiled any more.
1978		W. Diehl Sharky’s Machine 217: You’re a little off your feed.
1982		M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 51: Carver’s been off his feed lately.

2. incompetent, unskilled.

1907

C.E. Mulford Bar-20 iii: ‘Shorty kin shoot plum’ good – tain’t him,’ contradicted Billy. ‘Yas – with a six-shooter. He’s off’n his feed with a rifle,’ explained Johnny.