hand-fed ˈhan(d)-ˈfed How to pronounce hand-feed (audio) ; hand-feeding

transitive verb

: to feed by hand
He does not just hunt sharks, he hand-feeds them live salmon from a submerged cage.Rick Reilly

Examples of hand-feed in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
But the people who did the actual hands-on work of incubating the eggs and hand-feeding the chicks around the clock were a dedicated team of aviculturists and bird keepers. Grrlscientist, Forbes, 25 Sep. 2024 Animal encounters allow a more up-close look at some of your favorite critters, such as hand-feeding a bison or touching a rhino. John Tufts, The Indianapolis Star, 23 July 2024 But when hand-fed something yummy, the rats still liked it. Celia Ford, Vox, 22 May 2024 Guests can snorkel the artificial Grand Reef teeming with fish and graceful rays, spend hours floating the lazy river that winds under waterfalls, and hand-feed birds in the aviary. Angela Caraway-Carlton, Miami Herald, 15 May 2024 Trying to reason with someone like that is like trying to hand-feed a shark. Frederick Kaufman, Harper's Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024 Beyond the bustle of cleaning wounds and hand-feeding animals — some of the babies need to be fed every one to two hours — there’s the sheer amount of housekeeping that goes into caring for this many animals. Jess McHugh, Washington Post, 9 Mar. 2024 According to Australia media, the couple visited the zoo for a private tour and were photographed hand-feeding a kangaroo and snapping selfies in between assorted PDA. Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2024 The Memphis Zoo welcomed the baby pygmy slow loris in a Jan. 29 Facebook video, which showed the endangered primate being hand-fed by staff. Makiya Seminera, Charlotte Observer, 31 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1794, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hand-feed was in 1794

Dictionary Entries Near hand-feed

Cite this Entry

“Hand-feed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hand-feed. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on hand-feed

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!