vittles

plural noun

vit·​tles ˈvi-tᵊlz How to pronounce vittles (audio)
: supplies of food : victuals
now chiefly used playfully to evoke the supposed language of cowboys
The vendors sold souvenirs and knickknacks and all manner of local vittles.Frank Deford
… Taco Cabana of San Antonio makes sure its vittles are the freshest Tex-Mex north of the Rio Grande.Richard S. Teitelbaum
My mother turned an icy stare on her, leaving my father to try to make amends. "All you kids have to stay for dinner. Leo and I'll rustle up some vittles." "Vittles?" my mother asked with disdain. "Food," my father said. "In cowboy movies, they call it vittles." "I abhor cowboy movies," she said, and returned to her room.Pat Conroy

Examples of vittles in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This feature also allows the colorful vittles to be seen by orioles passing overhead. Kj Callihan, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Oct. 2022 Out the cabin window is a field, among many in the area, where the spring waterfowl migration stops for vittles. Steve Meyer, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Apr. 2022 At Circle in the Square on Broadway, this was an immersive experience: the in-the-round audience was fed vittles and all. Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 13 Jan. 2022 The gory Spanish satire imagines a tower-esque prison where the incarcerated are fed via a platform filled with high-end vittles, and prisoners on lower levels have to eat the scraps from those above them. Bill Keveney, USA TODAY, 10 Aug. 2021 There's a caterer's kitchen with its own entrance, and a dumbwaiter for the vittles and drinks. Rohan Preston Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 11 Dec. 2020 But viral and bacterial genetic material didn’t always track together, Brown said, hinting that some protists might have skipped the middleman and gone straight for the viral vittles. Katherine J. Wu New York Times, Star Tribune, 24 Sep. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vittles.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of vittles was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near vittles

Cite this Entry

“Vittles.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vittles. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

vittles

noun plural
vit·​tles ˈvit-ᵊlz How to pronounce vittles (audio)
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!