a. (and sb.) [ad. L. alimentāri-us; f. aliment-um: see ALIMENT and -ARY.]
1. Of the nature of aliment; alimental; nutritious.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 30. To restraine the word Humors to the Alimentarie, and not to include the Excrementitious.
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 513. The alimentary Juyce passes through the Umbilical vessels.
1746. R. James, Introd. Mouffet & B’s Health’s Impr. (1746), 25. Milk loses … a great deal of its alimentary Virtues, if once boiled.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 27. Dependent therefore upon ciliary action for the injection of alimentary matter.
2. Concerned with the function of nutrition. Alimentary Canal: the whole channel or passage through the body for receiving and digesting food and ejecting excrementitious matter.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, Introd. 8. There are some … waters, not to be allowed for alimentary vses.
1733. G. Cheyne, Eng. Mal., II. viii. § 5 (1734), 196. The Alimentary tubes being the first sensible Sufferers in all Bodily Maladies.
1842. Wilson, Anat. Vade Mec., 508. The Alimentary canal is a musculo-membranous tube, extending from the mouth to the anus.
1865. L. Simpson, Dining, ii. (ed. 3), 27. Physics and chemistry have been called in to the aid of the alimentary art.
3. Connected with sustenance or maintenance; providing maintenance.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., Alimentary Law was an old law among the Romans, whereby children were obliged to find sustenance for their parents.
1831. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLV. 423. An alimentary pension from his family.
1875. Merivale, Gen. Hist. Rome, lxv. (1877), 524. Supplying the necessities of the Italians by alimentary endowments.
† 4. Depending on the maintenance of others; supported by charity or public provision. Obs.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Trajan was the first that brought up any of these alimentary boys.
† B. sb. An almsman. Obs.
1617[?]. Minsheu (in Wright), An Alimentarie, he to whom a man giveth his meat and drinke by his last will.
