fatten (fatn)

[ Yea, their Apis might not drinke of Nilus, for this riuers fatning qualitie, but of a fountaine peculiar to his holi Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 571. ne e. Fatten the courtier, starve the learned band. Pope , Dunciad, i. 315. 2. To enrich; make fertile and fruitful. Dare not, on thy life, Touch aught of mine: This falchion else, not hitherto withstood, These hostile fields shall fatten with thy blood. Dryden. Tennyson, Golden Year. When wealth. shall slowly melt In many streams to fatten lower lands. II. in trans. To grow fat or corpulent; grow plump, thick, or fleshy. And villains fatten with the brave man's labour. Otway . The Pere and his Capuchins slept and ate And thrived and fattened for many a year, Ungrudged by none of their royal cheer. Harper's Mag . , LXXVI. 187. fattener (fat'nėr), n . One who or that which fattens; that which gives fatne , or richne and fertility. The wind was west, on which that philosopher bestowed the encomium of fatner of the earth. Arbuthnot.