fodder

Meanings

1. 1noununcountabletechnical

   Dry food like hay or straw that is fed to farm animals.

   Grammar: Uncountable: say 'some fodder' or 'a lot of fodder,' not 'a fodder.'

   Patterns

   • fodder for animals
   • grow fodder
   • feed fodder to something

   The farmer stored hay as fodder for the winter.

   Cows need plenty of fodder to stay healthy.

   They cut the grass to make fodder for the goats.

2. 2noununcountablefigurative

   Something or someone used to supply material for a process, often in a negative way.

   Grammar: Uncountable and usually followed by 'for': fodder for gossip, cannon fodder.

   Patterns

   • fodder for something
   • cannon fodder
   • become fodder for something

   The scandal became fodder for the newspapers for weeks.

   Young soldiers were sent to the front as cannon fodder.

   Her strange behavior was fodder for office gossip.

Common combinations

cannon fodder

The general was accused of treating his troops as cannon fodder.

fodder for gossip

Their argument was fodder for gossip all over town.

animal fodder

The barn was full of animal fodder for the winter.

fodder crop

They planted a fodder crop to feed the cattle.

Synonyms and how they differ

feed

A general word for food given to animals; 'fodder' is more specific to dry, coarse food like hay.

provender

An old-fashioned word for animal food; 'fodder' is the everyday term.

material

In the figurative sense, 'material' is neutral; 'fodder' suggests it is used up or exploited.

Word family

fodder verb

To feed animals with fodder (rare).

Commonly confused: fodder or fodder vs. folder?

Practice

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Write a sentence using “fodder”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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