I. ˈfädə(r) noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English fōdor, foddor — more at food
1. : food , provision — not now in formal use
2. : something fed to domestic animals ; especially : coarse food (as hay, vegetables, corn fodder) for cattle, horses, and sheep
fodder plants
fodder trees
— compare concentrate , roughage
3. : something that is used to supply a constant demand : something to be consumed: as
a. slang : ammunition
b. : raw material for artistic creation
burlesques of animals, babies, and females are perennial clown fodder — Bill Ballantine
the fodder of the middlebrow novelist — V.S.Pritchett
c. : human beings regarded for a certain purpose as an undifferentiated mass
labor fodder
cannon fodder
factory fodder
II. transitive verb
( foddered ; foddered ; foddering -d(ə)riŋ ; fodders )
Etymology: Middle English fodderen, from fodder (I) , n.
1. : to feed with or as if with fodder
2. obsolete : graze
III.
variant of fother