Definition of "cater"

cater¹

/ˈkeɪtə/

verb
third-person singular simple present caters, present participle catering, simple past and past participle catered
1. To provide, particularly:
  Quotations
  Noe widdowes curse caters a dish of mine.
  a. 1635, Thomas Randolph, Poems, page 4
  1. (transitive, intransitive) To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
    Quotations
    He that doth the Rauens feede,Yea prouidently caters for the Sparrow.
    a. 1616, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 2, scene 3, lines 45 ff.
  2. (intransitive, figurative, with 'to') To provide anything required or desired, often (derogatory) to pander.
    Quotations
    Art... was... catering to the national taste and vanity.
    1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Paris Sketch Book, volume 2, page 16
noun
plural caters
1. (obsolete) Synonym of acater: an officer who purchased cates (food supplies) for the steward of a large household or estate.
  Quotations
  I am oure Catour and bere oure Alther purse.
  c. 1400, Gamelyn, ll. 321 ff.
  Rec. for iij calvys off þe cater of Crystis Cherche.
  1512, Account Book of the Hospital of St. John, Canterbury (1510–1556)
2. (obsolete) Synonym of caterer: any provider of food.
  Quotations
  Of his diete catour was scarsite...
  c. 1430, John Lydgate translating Giovanni Boccaccio, The Fall of Princes‎, Bk. VII, Ch. x, l. 161
3. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.
  Quotations
  The eye is loues Cator.
  1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, page 28

cater²

verb
third-person singular simple present caters, present participle catering, simple past and past participle catered
1. (UK dialect) To place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.
  Quotations
  The trees are set checkerwise, and so catred [Latin: partim in quincuncem directis], as looke which way ye wyl, they lye leuel.
  1577, Barnaby Googe transl. Conrad Heresbach, Foure Bookes of Husbandry, Bk. II, fol. 69v
  ‘Cater’ across the rails ever so cleverly, you cannot escape jolt and jar.
  1873, Silverland, page 129
adverb
not comparable
1. (UK dialect, US) Diagonally.
  Quotations
  Cater and Cater-cornered, diagonal; diagonally. To ‘cut cater’ in the case of velvet, cloth, etc., is... ‘cut on the cross’. Cater-snozzle, to make an angle; to ‘mitre’.
  1881, Sebastian Evans, Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, s.v. "Cater and Cater-cornered"

cater³

/ˈkeɪtə/

noun
plural caters
1. (rare, obsolete) Four.
  Quotations
  The auditour... cometh in with sise sould, and cater denere, for vi.s. and iiii.d.
  1553, Thomas Wilson, The Arte of Rhetorique..., page 86
2. (card games, dice games, obsolete) The four of cards or dice.
  Quotations
  Cater is a very good caste.
  1519, William Horman, Vulgaria, fol. 280v
3. (music) A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.
  Quotations
  The very terms of the art are enough to frighten an amateur. Hunting, dodging... caters, cinques, etc.
  1872, Henry Thomas Ellacombe, The Bells of Church, page 29
  Cater... The name given by change ringers to changes of nine bells. The word should probably be written quaters, as it is meant to denote the fact that four couples of bells change their places in the order of ringing.
  1878, George Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Cater"

Definition of "cater"

cater1

verb

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noun

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cater2

verb

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adverb

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cater3

noun

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cater¹

cater²

cater³