aliment

noun

1. (archaic, countable, uncountable)Food.

   “In the living state, the body is observed to receive aliment; [...]”

2. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Nourishment, sustenance.

   “As when Demosthenes reprehended the people for hearkening to the conditions offered by King Philip, being not honourable nor equal, he saith they were but aliments of their sloth and weakness, which if they were taken away, necessity would teach them stronger resolutions.”

   “All this monotony might be a good aliment for a poet but what if one had no gifts?”

3. (Scotland, countable, uncountable)An allowance for maintenance; alimony.

verb

1. (obsolete)To feed, nourish.
2. To sustain, support.

   “Yet there would also be many – and not simply the powerful and ultra-privileged – who lost out, and whose discontent operated as a kind of political yeast, alimenting ‘unpatriotic’ thoughts and acts.”