feeder

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun One that supplies food.
• noun One that is fed, especially an animal that is being fattened for market.
• noun A worker or device that feeds materials into a machine for further processing.
• noun Something that contributes to the operation, maintenance, or supply of something else, especially.
• noun A tributary stream.
• noun A branch line of a transport system, as of an airline or a railroad.
• noun Any of the medium-voltage lines used to distribute electric power from a substation to consumers or to smaller substations.
• noun A transmission line between an antenna and a transmitter.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun One who or that which feeds, or supplies food or nourishment.
• noun One who furnishes incentives; an encourager.
• noun One who or an animal that eats or takes nourishment.
• noun A servant or dependent supported by his lord; a parasite.
• noun One who fattens cattle for slaughter.
• noun That which feeds or supplies; anything that serves for the conveyance of material or supplies to, or furnishes communication with, something else: as, great rivers are valuable feeders of commerce; cross-roads and lanes are feeders to the highway.
• noun Specifically— A fountain. stream, or channel that supplies a main canal with water.
• noun A branch or side railroad running into and increasing the business of the main line.
• noun In mining, a branch or spur falling into the main lode, and appearing to add to its width or richness; a dropper.
• noun Any device or contrivance for delivering to a machine the feed or materials to be operated upon, as the apron of a carder, the feed-wheel of a sewing-machine, the feeding device of a saw-mill, rail-machine, grain-mill, etc.
• noun In organ-building, a small oblique bellows placed under (occasionally apart from) the large horizontal storage-bellows, and used to furnish air to the latter. The mechanical power is applied to the feeder, not to the bellows proper, though the steadiness and pressure of the wind depend solely upon the size and weighting of the latter.
• noun In theat. cant, a subordinate role written to bring out the peculiarities of an important part.
• noun One who feeds a machine, as a printing-press: as, pressmen and feeders. See feeding, 4.
• noun In entomology, one of the organs composing the mouth-parts or trophi.
• noun The player who tosses the ball to the batsman (in rounders and similar games); hence, the name of a particular game resembling rounders.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun One who, or that which, gives food or supplies nourishment; steward.
• noun One who furnishes incentives; an encourager.
• noun One who eats or feeds; specifically, an animal to be fed or fattened.
• noun One who fattens cattle for slaughter.
• noun A stream that flows into another body of water; a tributary; specifically (Hydraulic Engin.), a water course which supplies a canal or reservoir by gravitation or natural flow.
• noun A branch railroad, stage line, air route, or the like; a side line which increases the business of the main line.
• noun A small lateral lode falling into the main lode or mineral vein.
• noun A strong discharge of gas from a fissure; a blower.
• noun (Mach.) An auxiliary part of a machine which supplies or leads along the material operated upon.
• noun (Steam Engine) A device for supplying steam boilers with water as needed.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun That which feeds.
• noun That which is used to feed.
• noun A tributary stream, especially of a canal.
• noun A branch line of a railway
• noun A transmission line that feeds the electricity for an electricity substation, or for a transmitter.
• noun baseball, slang, archaic, 1800s The pitcher.
• noun video games, derogatory A player who is killed by the opposing player or team more than once through lack of skills and experience, thus helping the opposing side.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun someone who consumes food for nourishment
• noun an animal being fattened or suitable for fattening
• noun a branch that flows into the main stream
• noun an outdoor device that supplies food for wild birds
• noun an animal that feeds on a particular source of food
• noun a machine that automatically provides a supply of some material