FEED

10 definitions found across Law Mind sources

FEEDAuthored
The Law Mind • 871 words
Definition
In law, "feed" carries two distinct technical meanings that bear little resemblance to each other and even less to everyday usage. 1. To lend retroactive support or strength to a legal instrument or interest. When a party who lacked title or authority at the time of a conveyance or encumbrance later acquires that title or authority, the subsequently acquired interest is said to "feed" the earlier instrument — supplying it with the legal foundation it originally lacked. The classic applications are: (a) feeding an estoppel, where an interest that vests after a representation was made supplies the basis for enforcing that estoppel; and (b) feeding a mortgage, where a mortgagor who conveys property without good title subsequently acquires title, which then inures to the benefit of the mortgagee. 2. To fatten livestock for market. In agricultural and commercial law, particularly in older Illinois and Midwestern case law, "feed" referred to the process of making cattle or hogs marketable through fattening. The term carried commercial weight in disputes over the value of livestock, feeding contracts, and the transformation of animals from lean to market-ready condition.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To give food to someone or something; to supply a machine with material to be processed; to satisfy a desire or need; to cause herbage to be grazed. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy physical hunger; to fill the wants of; to supply with that which is consumed. The common meaning of "feed" tracks closely to both legal senses at the surface level — supplying something that was lacking — but the legal doctrine of "feeding" an estoppel or mortgage is a term of art with specific operative consequences. A researcher who encounters "feed" in a judicial opinion about property or estoppel should not read it in its nutritional sense. The livestock meaning, by contrast, does overlap with ordinary usage but carries a precise commercial-legal implication: not merely feeding animals, but transforming them into marketable condition.
Common Confusion
The two legal meanings of "feed" are almost never confused with each other because they appear in entirely different legal contexts — property and estoppel doctrine versus agricultural commerce. The confusion risk lies elsewhere: researchers unfamiliar with the doctrine of after-acquired title may read "feeds the estoppel" or "feeds the mortgage" as figurative or colloquial and miss that the passage is describing a recognized legal mechanism. The word signals a specific doctrinal event, not a metaphor.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in historical property law, mortgage law, or estoppel doctrine will encounter "feed" as a term of art most often in 19th-century English and American decisions. Its appearance signals the after-acquired title or estoppel-by-deed doctrine, and recognizing the word as technical rather than descriptive is essential to accurate reading. The agricultural meaning is concentrated in older state-level commercial and livestock cases, particularly from Illinois and other Midwestern jurisdictions where livestock feeding operations were subjects of frequent litigation. Researchers working on agricultural contract disputes, livestock valuation, or commercial law in the 19th and early 20th centuries should watch for "feed" as denoting a specific transformation in the animal's commercial status. In either sense, "feed" rarely appears as a headword in modern legal dictionaries. Researchers relying solely on contemporary sources may miss both meanings. The feeding-the-estoppel doctrine has been absorbed into the broader doctrine of after-acquired title (sometimes called estoppel by deed) and is better indexed under those headings in modern research tools. Cross-searching under AFTER-ACQUIRED TITLE, ESTOPPEL BY DEED, and MORTGAGE will surface the relevant corpus material more reliably than searching "feed" directly.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries acknowledge both meanings, with varying emphasis. Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's treat the property/estoppel sense as primary, citing Christmas v. Oliver, 5 Mood. & R. 202, as authority — a real English case that grounded the formulation "the interest when it accrues feeds the estoppel." Bouvier's adds the mortgage application explicitly ("a subsequent title acquired by the mortgagor is said to feed the mortgage"), making it the most complete of the four on the property doctrine. Anderson's focuses almost exclusively on the agricultural meaning, giving it an independent commercial definition tied to market fitness. The historical dictionaries collectively confirm that both meanings were in active legal use during the 19th century. What they do not address is the decline of "feed" as a standalone term of art in modern usage: the property doctrine it described has survived and developed, but the vocabulary has shifted to after-acquired title and estoppel by deed, leaving "feed" as an archaic verbal shorthand that still appears in historical sources and occasionally in courts quoting older authority.
Jurisdictional Note
The agricultural meaning had its heaviest case law development in Illinois and the Midwestern states, reflecting the regional livestock economy. The property/estoppel meaning derives from English common law and was adopted broadly across American jurisdictions, but its continued use as a verbal formula varies by state.
Related Terms
After-acquired title — Estoppel by deed — Estoppel — Mortgage — Conveyance — Title — Feeding the estoppel — Inurement — Livestock (commercial law)
FEEDmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
To lend additional support; to strengthen ex post facto. "The interest when it accrues feeds the estoppel." 5 Mood. & R. 202.
FEEDmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
Referring to cattle and hogs, may mean to make fit for market by feeding.
FEEDmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
This word is used in its ordinary sense with reference to cattle and hogs which are said to be made marketable by feeding. 66 III. 102. It is also used in the sense of lending ad- ditional strength or subsequent support, as "the estate which becomes vested feeds the estoppel; " 5 Man. & Ry. 202, 207; во а subsequent title acquired by the mortgagor is said "to feed the mortgage." See
FEEDv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To give food to; to supply with nourishment; to satisfy the physical huger of. If thine enemy hunger, feed him. Rom. xii. 20. Unreasonable reatures feed their young. Shak. To satisfy; grafity or minister to, as any sense, talent, taste, or desire. I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. Shak. Feeding him with the hope of liberty. Knolles. To fill the wants of; to supply with that which is used or wasted; as, springs feed ponds; the hopper feeds the mill; to feed a furnace with coal. To nourish, in a general sense; to foster, strengthen, develop, and guard. Thou shalt feed people Israel. 2 Sam. v. 2. Mightiest powers by deepest calms are feed. B. Cornwall. To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle; as, if grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep. Once in three years feed your mowing lands. Mortimer. To give for food, especially to animals; to furnish for consumption; as, to feed out turnips to the cows; to feed water to a steam boiler. To supply (the material to be operated upon) to a machine; as, to feed paper to a printing press. To produce progressive operation upon or with (as in wood and metal working machines, so that the work moves to the cutting tool, or the tool to the work).
FEEDv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To take food; to eat. Her kid . . . which I afterwards killed because it would not feed. De Foe. To subject by eating; to satisfy the appetite; to feed one's self (upon something); to prey; -- with on or upon. Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. Shak. To be nourished, strengthened, or satisfied, as if by food. "He feeds upon the cooling shade." Spenser. To place cattle to feed; to pasture; to graze. If a man . . . shall put in his beast, and shall feed in anotheEx. xxii. 5.
FEEDn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep. A grazing or pasture ground. Shak. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats. A meal, or the act of eating. [R.] For such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found. Milton. The water supplied to steam boilers. The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work. The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones. The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion. Feed bag, a nose bag containing feed for a horse or mule. -- Feed cloth, an apron for leading cotton, wool, or other fiber, into a machine, as for carding, etc. -- Feed door, a door to a furnace, by which to supply coal. -- Feed head. (a) A cistern for feeding water by gravity to a steam boiler. (b) (Founding) An excess of metal above a mold, which serves to render the casting more compact by its pressure; -- also called a riser, deadhead, or simply feed or head Knight. -- Feed heater. (a) (Steam Engine) A vessel in which the feed water for the boiler is heated, usually by exhaust steam. (b) A boiler or kettle in which is heated food for stock. -- Feed motion, or Feed gear (Mach.), the train of mechanism that gives motion to the part that directly produces the feed in a machine. -- Feed pipe, a pipe for supplying the boiler of a steam engine, etc., with water. -- Feed pump, a force pump for supplying water to a steam boiler, etc. -- Feed regulator, a device for graduating the operation of a feeder. Knight. -- Feed screw, in lathes, a long screw employed to impart a regular motion to a tool rest or tool, or to the work. -- Feed water, water supplied to a steam boiler, etc. -- Feed wheel (Mach.), a kind of feeder. See Feeder, n., 8.
feedverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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To give (someone or something) food to eat. | To eat (usually of animals). | To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food. | To give to a machine to be processed. | To supply (a machine) with something to be processed. | To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.). | To supply with something. | To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle. | To pass to. | To create the environment where another phonological rule can apply; to be applied before (another rule). | To create the syntactic environment in which another syntactic rule is applied; to be applied before (another syntactic rule).
feednoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals. | Something supplied continuously. | The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon. | The forward motion of the material fed into a machine. | A meal. | A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities. | online content presented sequentially: | antichronological sequence of posts or articles from a single source, especially as consumable on a platform other as originally published. | online content presented sequentially: | content intended for consumption by scrolling or swiping, especially as a home page and from multiple publishers followed or algorithmically curated | A straight man who delivers lines to the comedian during a performance.
feedverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
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simple past and past participle of fee

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