supply

1. 1

   To provide (something), to make (something) available for use.transitive

   • to supply money for the war
2. 2

   To furnish or equip with.transitive

   • to supply a furnace with fuel; to supply soldiers with ammunition
3. 3

   To fill up, or keep full.transitive

   • Rivers are supplied by smaller streams.
4. 4

   To compensate for, or make up a deficiency of.transitive

   • 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.
5. 5

   To serve instead of; to take the place of.transitive

   • Burning ships the banished sun supply.
   • The sun was set, and Vesper, to supply His absent beams, had lighted up the sky.
6. 6

   To act as a substitute.intransitive

7. 7

   To fill temporarily; to serve as substitute for another in, as a vacant place or office; to occupy; to have possession of.transitive

   • to supply a pulpit

syn. provision

1. 1

   The act of supplying.uncountable

2. 2

   An amount of something supplied.countable

   • A supply of good drinking water is essential.
   • She said, "China has always had a freshwater supply problem with 20 percent of the world’s population but only 7 percent of its freshwater".
3. 3

   The market force that causes sellers to be both willing and able to sell a good or service, as measured by the amount of that good or service that is currently available to be bought at any given price point; the amount itself.countableuncountable

   • Supply and demand ebb and flow in a complex interplay.
   • The supply of timber to the region's mills was lower than expected this month, owing to transport problems posed by wildfires.
4. 4

   Provisions.countablein-pluraluncountable

   • They are busy laying in supplies for the coming winter.
5. 5

   An amount of money provided, as by Parliament or Congress, to meet the annual national expenditures.countablein-pluraluncountable

   • to vote supplies
6. 6

   Somebody, such as a teacher or clergyman, who temporarily fills the place of another; a substitute.countableuncountable

1. 1

   Supplely: in a supple manner, with suppleness.

   • 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—'