victual
Plural: victuals
Noun
- any substance that can be used as food
- Food fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption.
- Food supplies; provisions.
- Edible plants.
- Grain of any kind.
Verb
Verb Forms: victualed, victualing, victuals, victualled, victualling
- To provide with food or provisions.
- supply with food
- "The population was victualed during the war"
- lay in provisions
- "The vessel victualled before the long voyage"
- take in nourishment
- To provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals or food; to provision.
- To lay in or procure food supplies.
- To eat.
Examples
- He had to victual his mind with new words to improve his Scrabble game.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English vitaile, vitaylle (“food; food and drink, especially as needed for sustenance; (usually in the plural) food and drink stores or supplies; rations; provision of food and drink as a military stipend; crops”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman vitaile, vitaille [and other forms] and Old French vitaile, vitaille, victaille (“food, provisions, victuals”) [and other forms] (modern French victuaille), from Late Latin victuālia, the neuter plural of victuālis (“nutritional”), from Latin vīctus (“that which sustains life, diet, nourishment, provision”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Vīctus is derived from vīvō (“to live; to be alive, survive; to reside in”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs).
The spelling of the modern English and French words has been influenced by Late Latin victuālia, though the pronunciation of the Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle French words has been retained.
Synonyms
Scrabble Score: 12
victual: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordvictual: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
victual: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary