Meaning & use
overfeed
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitive
To give a person or animal more food than is healthy or needed.
Grammar: Takes an object: do not overfeed the fish.
Patterns
- overfeed someone
- overfeed an animal
Do not overfeed the goldfish or the water will turn cloudy.
Many owners overfeed their dogs because they look hungry.
She worried she might overfeed the baby.
verbtransitive
To supply a plant, lawn or system with too much fertilizer or nutrients.
Grammar: Takes an object: overfeed the lawn.
Patterns
- overfeed a plant
If you overfeed tomato plants, you get leaves but few fruit.
Gardeners often overfeed their lawns in spring.
He overfed the roses and burned the roots.
Word forms
| third person singular | overfeeds |
|---|---|
| past tense | overfed |
| past participle | overfed |
| -ing form | overfeeding |
Common combinations
- overfeed a pet
- It is easy to overfeed a pet when it begs.
- overfeed the baby
- Parents sometimes worry they might overfeed the baby.
- tend to overfeed
- Visitors tend to overfeed the ducks at the pond.
- overfed and underexercised
- The cat was overfed and underexercised.
- risk of overfeeding
- There is a real risk of overfeeding fish in a small tank.
Synonyms and how they differ
- stuff
- Stuff is informal and suggests forcing a lot of food in, while overfeed is neutral and about giving too much.
- overindulge
- Overindulge usually describes people treating themselves too much, whereas overfeed is something done to someone else.
- fatten up
- Fatten up is usually deliberate, often for a purpose, but overfeed is usually a mistake.
Opposites
Word family
- overfed adjective
- given too much food
- overfeeding noun
- the act of giving too much food
- feed verb
- to give food to someone
- underfeed verb
- to give too little food
Commonly confused: overfeed or overeat?
overfeed vs overeat
Overeat means to eat too much yourself, while overfeed means to give too much food to someone or something else.
Practice
The vet warned me not to ___ my cat because she was gaining weight.
Choose one answer.
Overfeed means to give a pet too much food, and it takes an object. Overeat describes what the animal itself does, so it cannot take my cat as an object.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “overfeed”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.