What is "feed gear"

Gear \Gear\ (g[=e]r), n. [OE. gere, ger, AS. gearwe clothing, adornment, armor, fr. gearo, gearu, ready, yare; akin to OHG. garaw[=i], garw[=i] ornament, dress. See Yare, and cf. Garb dress.]

1. Clothing; garments; ornaments.

   Array thyself in thy most gorgeous gear.
   --Spenser.

2. Goods; property; household stuff.
   --Chaucer.

   Homely gear and common ware.
   --Robynson (More's Utopia).

3. Whatever is prepared for use or wear; manufactured stuff or material.

   Clad in a vesture of unknown gear.
   --Spenser.

4. The harness of horses or cattle; trapping.

5. Warlike accouterments. [Scot.]
   --Jamieson.

6. Manner; custom; behavior. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

7. Business matters; affairs; concern. [Obs.]

   Thus go they both together to their gear.
   --Spenser.

8. (Mech.)

   1. A toothed wheel, or cogwheel; as, a spur gear, or a bevel gear; also, toothed wheels, collectively.

   2. An apparatus for performing a special function; gearing; as, the feed gear of a lathe.

   3. Engagement of parts with each other; as, in gear; out of gear.

9. pl. (Naut.) See 1st Jeer (b) .

10. Anything worthless; stuff; nonsense; rubbish. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]
    --Wright.

    That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man.
    --Latimer.

    Bever gear. See Bevel gear.

    Core gear, a mortise gear, or its skeleton. See Mortise wheel, under Mortise.

    Expansion gear (Steam Engine), the arrangement of parts for cutting off steam at a certain part of the stroke, so as to leave it to act upon the piston expansively; the cut-off. See under Expansion.

    Feed gear. See Feed motion, under Feed, n.

    Gear cutter, a machine or tool for forming the teeth of gear wheels by cutting.

    Gear wheel, any cogwheel.

    Running gear. See under Running.

    To throw in gear or To throw out of gear (Mach.), to connect or disconnect (wheelwork or couplings, etc.); to put in, or out of, working relation.

Feed \Feed\, n.

1. That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep.

2. A grazing or pasture ground.
   --Shak.

3. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.

4. A meal, or the act of eating. [R.]

   For such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found.
   --Milton.

5. The water supplied to steam boilers.

6. (Mach.)

   1. The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work.

   2. The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones.

   3. The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion. Feed bag, a nose bag containing feed for a horse or mule. Feed cloth, an apron for leading cotton, wool, or other fiber, into a machine, as for carding, etc. Feed door, a door to a furnace, by which to supply coal. Feed head.

      1. A cistern for feeding water by gravity to a steam boiler.

      2. (Founding) An excess of metal above a mold, which serves to render the casting more compact by its pressure; -- also called a riser, deadhead, or simply feed or head --Knight. Feed heater.

         1. (Steam Engine) A vessel in which the feed water for the boiler is heated, usually by exhaust steam.

         2. A boiler or kettle in which is heated food for stock.

            Feed motion, or Feed gear (Mach.), the train of mechanism that gives motion to the part that directly produces the feed in a machine.

            Feed pipe, a pipe for supplying the boiler of a steam engine, etc., with water.

            Feed pump, a force pump for supplying water to a steam boiler, etc.

            Feed regulator, a device for graduating the operation of a feeder.
            --Knight.

            Feed screw, in lathes, a long screw employed to impart a regular motion to a tool rest or tool, or to the work.

            Feed water, water supplied to a steam boiler, etc.

            Feed wheel (Mach.), a kind of feeder. See Feeder, n., 8.