bottle-feed

American

[bot-l-feed] / ˈbɒt lˌfid /

verb (used with object)

bottle-fed, bottle-feeding

to nurse or feed (an infant or young animal) with milk or other nourishment from a nursing bottle.
to nurture or teach with exaggerated care.

We had to bottle-feed the new salesman on how to make door-to-door calls.

verb (used without object)

bottle-fed, bottle-feeding

to feed an infant or young animal from a nursing bottle.

bottle-feed British

verb

to feed (a baby) with milk from a bottle instead of breast-feeding

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bottle-feed

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I watched doctors in the intensive care unit bottle-feed an injured six-month-old girl whose parents can't be found.

From BBC • Feb. 10, 2023

Or bottle-feed a joey on Australia’s Kangaroo Island?

From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2023

Domingo-Garcia’s story went viral shortly after ICE raided her poultry plant, when it was reported that her breastfeeding four-month old daughter was struggling to learn to bottle-feed.

From Slate • Oct. 12, 2021

These allow visitors — whose ranks have included Ivanka Trump’s children — to pet or bottle-feed the animals.

From Washington Post • Jul. 12, 2019

Over coffee they shiver: they themselves are fastidious, they will bottle-feed, which is anyway more sanitary.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023