/ˈkeɪtə/, /ˈkeɪɾɚ/, /ˈkeʈə(ɾ)/
OriginFrom Middle English catour (“acater, provisioner”), aphetic form of acatour (“acater”), from Old French acater (“to buy, to purchase”). Equivalent to cate + -er.
- To provide, particularly
“Noe widdowes curse caters a dish of mine.”
“Priya’s parents’ Hinduism seemed to present conflicting views of sex: […] What people don’t know about the Kama Sutra is that it’s actually a text that … very heavily caters to Madonna/whore complexes”
“Huludao’s Xingcheng county and two districts have ordered entertainment venues such as theatres and cinemas to close, while restaurants are not to offer banqueting services or cater for large gatherin”
- ambitransitiveTo provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.
“I catered for her bat mitzvah.”
“His company catered our wedding.”
“He that doth the Rauens feede,
Yea prouidently caters for the Sparrow.”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo provide anything required or desired, often (derogatory) to pander.
“I always wanted someone to cater to my every whim.”
“Art... was... catering to the national taste and vanity.”
“And on the other side of the enter key, they would almost invariably find forums collectively celebrating individuals’ secret desires, or enterprising smut-mongers catering directly to them.”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo tailor something to an intended audience.
“The business caters for young professionals.”
“A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet r”
“The former were catered for both by liquor stores and, to a lesser extent, by the bottle shops of hotels.”
- UK, dialectalTo place, set, move, or cut diagonally or rhomboidally.
“The trees are set checkerwise, and so catred [Latin: partim in quincuncem directis], as looke which way ye wyl, they lye leuel.”
“‘Cater’ across the rails ever so cleverly, you cannot escape jolt and jar.”
- obsoleteSynonym of acater: an officer who purchased cates (food supplies) for the steward of a large household or estate.
“I am oure Catour and bere oure Alther purse.”
“Rec. for iij calvys off þe cater of Crystis Cherche.”
- obsoleteSynonym of caterer: any provider of food.
“Of his diete catour was scarsite...”
- figuratively, obsoleteSynonym of purveyor: any provider of anything.
“The eye is loues Cator.”
- obsolete, rareFour.
“The auditour... cometh in with sise sould, and cater denere, for vi.s. and iiii.d.”
- obsoleteThe four of cards or dice.
“Cater is a very good caste.”
- A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.
“The very terms of the art are enough to frighten an amateur. Hunting, dodging... caters, cinques, etc.”
“Cater... The name given by change ringers to changes of nine bells. The word should probably be written quaters, as it is meant to denote the fact that four couples of bells change their places in the”
- UK, US, dialectal, not-comparableDiagonally.
“Cater and Cater-cornered, diagonal; diagonally. To ‘cut cater’ in the case of velvet, cloth, etc., is... ‘cut on the cross’. Cater-snozzle, to make an angle; to ‘mitre’.”
- A surname originating as an occupation.
Formscaters(present, singular, third-person) · catering(participle, present) · catered(participle, past) · catered(past) · caters(plural) · catour(alternative) · cator(alternative) · kater(alternative) · chator(alternative) · catre(alternative) · quatre(alternative) · Caters(plural) · Cator(alternative)