fuel

Substance consumed to provide energy through combustion, or through chemical or nuclear reaction.countableuncountable

• More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

Substance that provides nourishment for a living organism; food.countableuncountable

• A little fuel to get down the mountain.

Something that stimulates, encourages or maintains an action.countablefigurativelyuncountable

• His books were fuel for the revolution.
• Money is the fuel for economy.

To provide with fuel.transitive

• The workings now employ ten twin-units, which are fuelled at Hornsey but return to Cambridge diesel depot for their weekly maintenance; [...].
• "Well, we do need to keep some of it on hand, donchaknow. For fueling the cookfires and all that rot."

To exacerbate, to cause to grow or become greater.transitive

• One detail that has fueled speculation for over a decade is the tyre tracks, which show the Highlander accelerated as it went down the embankment rather than braking.