Skip to main content
underfeeding

underfeeding

5.5
Giving too little fuel or material to a machine so it works poorly
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : insuficiencia
  • In the spring of 1940, workers in Germany's armament industries were beginning to collapse from overwork and underfeeding.

Examples

  • The factory's inefficiency was caused by the continuous underfeeding of raw materials, resulting in incomplete production runs.

  • The engineer noted that underfeeding the fuel line led to poor performance of the equipment during test runs.

  • Issues with the machinery arose from consistent underfeeding of the necessary inputs, causing frequent breakdowns.

Synonyms

insufficiency
vsunderfeeding
1 6.5

A lack of skill, experience, or resources needed for a job

is specific to material or fuel shortages that harm process performance
undersupply
vsunderfeeding
1 5.1

Not enough of something for people who need it

is about lacking input to machines causing faults or reduced performance

How Supplied

overfeeding
1 3.7
supply
346 1.0
underfeeding
  • Specialized
5.5
starvation
83 4.7

Surface Forms

underfeeding singular
underfeedings plural

Morphology

underfeeding = underfeed (transparent) = under + feed + ing

The technical sense extends the basic action 'underfeed' (provide too little) to machines/processes and is still a direct nominalization with -ing.

Etymology

Underfeeding in machines uses the same parts: under- 'too little' and feed 'to supply'. That is why underfeeding can mean supplying 'too little' fuel or material to a machine, which causes faults or lower performance.