cater

verb

ca·​ter ˈkā-tər 

catered; catering; caters

intransitive verb

1

: to provide a supply of food

cater for a large party

2

: to supply what is required or desired

catering to middle-class tastes

transitive verb

: to provide food and service for

catered the banquet

caterer

ˈkā-tər-ər 

noun

Synonyms

• feed
• board
• sustain
• serve

Examples of cater in a Sentence

The restaurant caters for parties.

A local restaurant catered the banquet.

The awards ceremony will be a catered event.

Recent Examples on the Web

So all of his advice is catered towards me. —Jacqueline Weiss, People.com, 2 Sep. 2025

At the beginning the library catered mostly to priests-in-training and required two references from the members of the clergy to reserve a room. —Margarita Gokun Silver, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2025

My company is catering lunch today! —R29 Team, Refinery29, 29 Aug. 2025

Local barbecue restaurants Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que (+1000), Q39 (+1100) and Jack Stack (+1500) catering the wedding are less popular bets than Ralph Lauren Hospitailty or private estate luxury catering (+260). —Joseph Hernandez august 27, Kansas City Star, 27 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

obsolete cater buyer of provisions, from Middle English catour, short for acatour, from Anglo-French, from acater to buy — more at cate

First Known Use

1580, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Phrases Containing cater

• cater-cousin
• cater for
• cater to

Rhymes for cater

• crater
• frater
• freighter
• gator
• grater
• greater
• hater
• krater
• later
• plater
• prater
• rater

Kids Definition

cater

verb

ca·​ter ˈkāt-ər 

1

: to provide a supply of food

cater for parties

2

: to supply what is wanted or needed

caterer

-ər-ər 

noun