Definition of "provender"

The farm which supplied to him ungrudging provender had all his vast capacity for work in willing exercise …

1859, George Meredith, chapter 12, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall

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.

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, canto CANTO 2

Irregular, sporadic feeding and strange provender were beginning to take their toll, and I felt queasy at the thought of 'various curries' the Amat's clerk had promised for the first meal of the day.

1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth

(...) hobbits were easy-going with their children in the matter of sitting up late, especially when there was a chance of getting them a free meal. Bringing up young hobbits took a lot of provender.

1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Chapter I, A long-expected party

One night, after several days of continuous plowing, and after the ox and mule had been stabled and provendered for the night, the ox said to the mule […]

1911, International Horseshoers' Monthly Magazine, volume 12, page 35