[a. Fr. aliment (16th c. in Littré), or ad. its original, L. aliment-um, f. al-ĕre to nourish: see -MENT.]
1. The material or means of nourishing; that which nourishes or feeds; nutriment, food.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch. (in Ashmole, 1652), v. 76. Liquors conveieth all Aliment and Food To every part of Mans Body.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. (1873), xxv. § 15. In the body there are three degrees of that we receive into it, aliment, medicine and poison.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 378. Poysons may meet with tempers whereto they may become Aliments.
1682. Grew, Anat. Plants, Introd. 3. The Aliment by which a Plant is fed.
1743. trans. Heister’s Surg., 110. Fluid Aliments, such as Broths or Soups.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., iv. 204. A mouth and gullet … admit aliment to the digestive sac.
2. fig. That which supports or sustains the mind, a quality, state, etc.; sustenance, support.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., lxxxi. Wks. IV. 8. The world is one body and Marriage the Aliment.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. ix. (1675), 224. The means of grace … are piety’s true and improving Aliments.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 92. Mischief, love, and contradiction, are the natural aliments of a woman.
1872. Liddon, Elem. Relig., iv. 143. Vice is not a necessary aliment, it is not even a necessary foil to virtue.
3. Sc. Law and gen. Provision for the maintenance of any one, called in Eng. Law ALIMONY; an allowance, annuity or pension.
1640–1. Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 167. Allowing to the said Margaret, for hir and hir childrene thair aliment and mantenance … aught hundred merks.
1777. Howard, Prisons Eng. (1780), 7. The expense of sueing for the aliment is in many places equal to those smaller debts.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., IX. XX. ix. 166. He had some pension or aliment from the Austrian Court.
1881. Fifeshire Jrnl., 15 Jan., 5/5. Inspector of Poor sued James Baxter for the board of his father in the Poorhouse … Decree was given for aliment at the rate of 2s. 6d. a week.
