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sup·ply (sə-plī)
Share:
tr.v. sup·plied, sup·ply·ing, sup·plies
1. To make available for use; provide: Does the hotel supply towels?
2. To provide something necessary or desired to; furnish or equip: supplied the players with uniforms. See Synonyms at furnish.
3. To have as a necessary or desirable feature: a crime scene that supplied valuable evidence.
4. To fill sufficiently; satisfy: supply a need.
5. To make up for (a deficiency, for example); compensate for.
n. pl. sup·plies
1. The act of supplying: funds for the supply of the expedition.
2. An amount available or sufficient for a given use; stock: Our supply of milk is low.
3. often supplies Materials or provisions stored and dispensed when needed.
4. Economics The amount of a commodity available for meeting a demand or for purchase at a given price.

[Middle English supplien, to help, complete, furnish with additional troops, from Old French soupleer, to fill up, from Latin supplēre : sub-, from below; see SUB- + plēre, to fill; see pelə-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

sup·plier n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.