Fother

//ˈfɒðə// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A load, a wagonload, especially any various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities. countable, historical, uncountable

    "Four fother of clod lime, and fifteen fothers of good manure, on each acre."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of fodder, food for animals. alt-of, alternative, countable, dialectal, uncountable

    "He ripp'd the womb up of his mother, / Dame Tellus, 'cause he wanted fother, / And provender, wherewith to feed / Himself and his less cruel steed."

Verb
  1. 1
    To feed animals (with fother). dialectal
  2. 2
    To stop a leak with oakum or old rope (often by drawing a sail under the hull). dated

Synonyms

All synonyms
cartloadcartloadloadload

Example

More examples

"Four fother of clod lime, and fifteen fothers of good manure, on each acre."

Etymology

From Middle English fother, fothir, from Old Norse fóðr (cognate to Old English fōdor), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (compare Dutch voer (“pasture, fodder”), German Futter (“feed”), Swedish foder). Doublet of fodder and foeder. More at food.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.