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φέρβω , only pres. and impf., exc. plpf. ἐπεφόρβειν (v. infr.):—Poet. Verb (used by Hp. (v. infr.) and v.l. in Pl.Criti.115a, and later Prose,
A.“ἔφερβε φονέα ἑαυτοῦ” App.Syr.62); feed, nourish, of the earth, h.Hom.30.2; [“ἄνθεμα] ὕδωρ φέρβει” Pi.O.2.73; “μ᾽ ἔφερβε σὸς δόμος” E.Or.869; of shepherds, “φ. βοτά” Id.Hipp.75; c. gen. rei, “ἐπεὶ βοτάνης ἐπεφόρβει βοῦς” h.Merc.105.
2. preserve, “πατρώϊον οἶκον” Hes. Op.377.
II. Pass., to be fed, feed upon a thing, παρέξω δαῖθ᾽ ὑφ᾽ ὧν ἐφερβόμην shall make food for those by whom I fed myself, S.Ph. 957; “τάδε φέρβεται ἐκ σέθεν ὄλβου” h.Hom.30.4.
2. eat, consume, c. acc., “ἡ ψυχὴ τὸ σῶμα φέρβεται” Hp.Epid.6.5.2; metaph., feed on, “σοφίαν” E.Med.827 (lyr.): c. dat., “ἐλπίσιν” Hp.Ep.17: abs., to be fed, live, A.R.4.1016.
3. enjoy, have, “κρέσσονα ἁλικίας νόον” Pi.P.5.110:—late in Act., “φέρβειν πρηΰτατον . . νόημα” Opp.H.2.643.
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

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  • Cross-references in general dictionaries from this page (10):
    • Euripides, Hippolytus, 75
    • Euripides, Medea, 827
    • Euripides, Orestes, 869
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 377
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 30 to Earth, 2
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 30 to Earth, 4
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 4 to Hermes, 105
    • Plato, Critias, 115a
    • Sophocles, Philoctetes, 957
    • Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 4.1016
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