Chapter Folly to Fool-hasty of F by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

1. (Med.) An issue or artificial ulcer for the discharge of humors from the body.[Obs.] Wiseman.

2. (Anat.) One of the membranous intervals between the incompleted angles of the parietal and neighboring bones of a fetal or young skull; — so called because it exhibits a rhythmical pulsation.

In the human fetus there are six fontanels, of which the anterior, or bregmatic, situated at the junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures, is much the largest, and remains open a considerable time after birth.

Fontanelle
(||Fon`ta`nelle") n. [F.] (Anat.) Same as Fontanel, 2.

Fontange
(||Fon`tange") n. [F., from the name of the first wearer, Mlle. de Fontanges, about 1679.] A kind of tall headdress formerly worn. Addison.

Food
(Food) n. [OE. fode, AS. foda; akin to Icel. fæða, fæði, Sw. föda, Dan. & LG. föde, OHG. fatunga, Gr. patei^sthai to eat, and perh. to Skr. pa to protect, L. pascere to feed, pasture, pabulum food, E. pasture. &radic75. Cf. Feed, Fodder food, Foster to cherish.]

1. What is fed upon; that which goes to support life by being received within, and assimilated by, the organism of an animal or a plant; nutriment; aliment; especially, what is eaten by animals for nourishment.

In a physiological sense, true aliment is to be distinguished as that portion of the food which is capable of being digested and absorbed into the blood, thus furnishing nourishment, in distinction from the indigestible matter which passes out through the alimentary canal as fæces.

Foods are divided into two main groups: nitrogenous, or proteid, foods, i.e., those which contain nitrogen, and nonnitrogenous, i.e., those which do not contain nitrogen. The latter group embraces the fats and carbohydrates, which collectively are sometimes termed heat producers or respiratory foods, since by oxidation in the body they especially subserve the production of heat. The proteids, on the other hand, are known as plastic foods or tissue formers, since no tissue can be formed without them. These latter terms, however, are misleading, since proteid foods may also give rise to heat both directly and indirectly, and the fats and carbohydrates are useful in other ways than in producing heat.

2. Anything that instructs the intellect, excites the feelings, or molds habits of character; that which nourishes.

This may prove food to my displeasure.

Shak.

In this moment there is life and food
For future years.

Wordsworth.

Food is often used adjectively or in self-explaining compounds, as in food fish or food-fish, food supply.

Food vacuole (Zoöl.), one of the spaces in the interior of a protozoan in which food is contained, during digestion. — Food yolk. (Biol.) See under Yolk.

Syn. — Aliment; sustenance; nutriment; feed; fare; victuals; provisions; meat.

Food
(Food), v. t. To supply with food. [Obs.] Baret.

Foodful
(Food"ful) a. Full of food; supplying food; fruitful; fertile. "The foodful earth." Dryden.

Bent by its foodful burden [the corn].

Glover.

Foodless
(Food"less), a. Without food; barren. Sandys.

Foody
(Food"y) a. Eatable; fruitful. [R.] Chapman.

Fool
(Fool) n. [Cf. F. fouler to tread, crush. Cf. 1st Foil.] A compound of gooseberries scalded and crushed, with cream; — commonly called gooseberry fool.