Definition of "supply"

supply¹

/səˈplaɪ/

verb
third-person singular simple present supplies, present participle supplying, simple past and past participle supplied
1. (transitive) To provide (something), to make (something) available for use.
2. (transitive) To furnish or equip with.
3. (transitive) To fill up, or keep full.
4. (transitive) To compensate for, or make up a deficiency of.
  Quotations
  It was objected against him that he had never experienced love. Whereupon he arose, left the society, and made it a point not to return to it until he considered that he had supplied the defect.
  1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque
5. (transitive) To serve instead of; to take the place of.
  Quotations
  Burning ships the banished sun supply.
  1666, Edmund Waller, Instructions to a Painter
  The sun was set, and Vesper, to supply His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.
  1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
6. (intransitive) To act as a substitute.
7. (transitive) To fill temporarily; to serve as substitute for another in, as a vacant place or office; to occupy; to have possession of.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural supplies
1. (uncountable) The act of supplying.
2. (countable) An amount of something supplied.
3. (in the plural) Provisions.
4. (chiefly in the plural) An amount of money provided, as by Parliament or Congress, to meet the annual national expenditures.
5. Somebody, such as a teacher or clergyman, who temporarily fills the place of another; a substitute.

supply²

/ˈsʌpli/

adverb
comparative more supply, superlative most supply
1. Supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.
  Quotations
  His voice was playful and full; his back was bent supply.
  1906, Ford Madox Ford, The fifth queen: and how she came to court, page 68
  […] the rain struck on her head as she bent supply to the movements of the pony, while it scrambled up the bank to the sheltering trees. For a couple of miles the path ran through woods alive with the varied voices of the rain, […]
  1938, David Leslie Murray, Commander of the mists
  She swayed slightly in the gusts, bent supply to them and seemed at one with the force which Straup found so hostile.
  1963, Johanna Moosdorf, Next door
  Grigory hesitantly took her in his arms to kiss her, but she held him off, bent supply backwards and shot a frightened glance at the windows.'They'll see!''Let them!''I'd be ashamed—'
  1988, Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Шо́лохов (Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov), Quiet flows the Don (translated), volume 1, page 96

Definition of "supply"

supply1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

noun

supply2

adverb

Quotations

supply¹

supply²