victual

noun

1. (archaic)Food fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption.

   “Shift bore (for il aire) as best ye do thinke, / and twise a day giue him fresh vittle and drinke: […]”

   “[T]hough the Cameleon Loue can feed on the ayre, I am one that am nouriſh'd by my victuals; and would faine have meate: [...]”

   “[T]he Making of Things Inalimentall, to become Alimentall, may be an Experiment of great Profit, for Making new Victuall.”

   “For as the Teeth in Beasts of Prey / Are Swords, with which they fight in Fray. / So Swords in Men of War, are Teeth, / Which they do eat their Vittle with.”

   “Friday told me, ſuch a Boat would do very well, and would carry much enough Vittle, Drink, Bread, that was his Way of Talking.”

2. (archaic, in-plural)Food supplies; provisions.

   “It is good to make prouiſion, for peraduenture wee ſhall lacke victuals and wee lie in campe on Blacke Heath long.”

   “The citie was thus taken, many of the Turks fled into the caſtell, the reſt were put vnto the ſword, man, woman, and child; and amongſt them alſo many of the Chriſtians, the furious ſouldiers taking of them no knowledge. Great wealth was there found, but ſmall ſtore of victuals.”

3. (obsolete, specifically)Edible plants.

   “[C]onſider, what Victuall or Eſculent Things there are, which grow ſpeedily, and within the yeere, As Parſnips, Carrets, Turnips, Onions, Radiſh, Artichokes of Hieruſalem, Maiz, and the like. […] The Victuall in Plantations, ought to be expanded, almoſt as in a Beſieged Towne; That is, with certaine Allowance.”

4. (Scotland, obsolete, specifically)Grain of any kind.

   “But if the beast and branks be spar'd / Till kye be gaun without the herd, / An' a' the vittel in the yard, / An' theckit right, / I mean your ingle-side to guard / Ae winter night.”

verb

1. (archaic, reflexive, transitive)To provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals or food; to provision.

   “[T]hy louing voyage / Is but for two moneths victuall’d: […]”

   “Spinola [Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquess of Los Balbases] continueth in his trenches before Breda, and victualeth and strengtheneth Breda, which being done, it is thought he will besiege Bergen op Zoom.”

   “He victualleth his soldiers during the time they are upon the guard, either about the palace or abroad in the wars: whereas it is contrary in the King's country; for the Cingalese soldiers bear their own expenses.”

   “I could here ſet down the very number of Acres that would bear Bread and Drink, Corn, together with Fleſh, Butter, and Cheeſe, ſufficient to Victual nine Millions of Perſons, as they are Victualled in Ships and regular Families; but I ſhall only ſay in general that 12,000,00. will do it, […]”

   “It was then, among other proof to the ſame purpoſe, given in evidence by a Virginia merchant, that in March, 1763, he had victualled his ſhips for twenty-four or twenty-five ſhillings the hundred weight of beef, which he conſidered as the ordinary price; […]”

2. (archaic, intransitive)To lay in or procure food supplies.

   “[Letter from Sir William Drury to Sir William Cecil, 3d April 1568 (Julian calendar).] The Lord Fleming [i.e., John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming], notwithstanding he still victualleth and maketh provision, he hath offered three personages of as great livehood as himself to enter caution and surety unto the [James Stewart, 1st] Earl of Moray, that he shall only hold the place at the devotion and service of the young King, and to no other.”

   “For though we took a little Flower hard by, yet the ſame Guide which told us of that Ship would have conducted us where we might had ſtore of Beef and Maiz: but inſtead thereof we lost both our time and the opportunity of providing our ſelves, and ſo were forced to be victualling when we ſhould have been cruizing off Cape Corrientes in expectation of the Manila Ship.”

   “A letter from Lt.-Gen. [John] Burgoyne to Maj.-Gen. [William] Heath, Jan. 24. 1778. […] [T]he fleet was fully victualled for four months, for the whole of the land-army and ſeamen.”

3. (archaic, intransitive)To eat.

   “I have Drank and Victual’d at Sir Humphrey’s for a Months Famine I am to endure here—I am hung round with Bottles and ſtuft full of Proviſion; will you eat a Pullet?”