Meaning & use
underfeeding
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Meanings
noununcountable
The act or practice of giving a person or animal less food than it needs to stay healthy.
Grammar: No plural and no article needed: underfeeding harms young animals.
Patterns
- the underfeeding of someone
- underfeeding of something
Underfeeding of the calves left them weak and small.
The charity says underfeeding in the first months can damage a child's growth.
The inspector blamed underfeeding for the horse's poor condition.
noununcountabletechnical
In farming or research, the deliberate limiting of food to a controlled level, for example to manage weight or test a diet.
Grammar: Used about planned feeding rather than neglect: controlled underfeeding.
Patterns
- underfeeding of something
The study used mild underfeeding to see how the mice aged.
Careful underfeeding helped the breeder keep the dogs lean.
Common combinations
- chronic underfeeding
- Chronic underfeeding stunted the puppies' growth.
- severe underfeeding
- Severe underfeeding was found at the farm.
- underfeeding of children
- The report warns about the underfeeding of children in poor regions.
- suffer from underfeeding
- The herd began to suffer from underfeeding during the drought.
- underfeeding and overfeeding
- Both underfeeding and overfeeding can cause health problems.
Synonyms and how they differ
- undernourishment
- This describes the resulting state of the body, while underfeeding names the action of giving too little food.
- malnutrition
- This covers any poor diet, including too much of the wrong food, so it is broader than underfeeding.
- starvation
- This means a much more extreme lack of food that can lead to death, so underfeeding is milder.
Opposites
Word family
- underfeed verb
- to give too little food
- underfed adjective
- not given enough food
- overfeeding noun
- giving too much food
- feeding noun
- the act of giving food
Commonly confused: underfeeding or undernourished?
underfeeding vs undernourished
Undernourished describes someone who lacks nutrients, whatever the reason, while underfeeding is about what someone else gives or fails to give.
Practice
The vet said the lambs were thin because of ___ during the harsh winter.
Choose one answer.
Underfeeding means giving too little food, which explains thin lambs. Overfeeding would make them heavy, and underwriting is about insurance.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “underfeeding”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.