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provide

1. To look out for in advance; to procure beforehand; to get, collect, or make ready for future use; to prepare. Provide us all things necessary.

2. To supply; to afford; to contribute. Bring me berries, or such cooling fruit As the kind, hospitable woods provide. (milton)

3. To furnish; to supply; formerly followed by of, now by with. And yet provided him of but one. . Rome . . . Was well provided with corn. .

4. To establish as a previous condition; to stipulate; as, the contract provides that the work be well done.

5. To foresee.

6. To appoint to an ecclesiastical benefice before it is vacant. See provisor.

Origin: A Latinism.

1. To procure supplies or means in advance; to take measures beforehand in view of an expected or a possible future need, especially a danger or an evil; followed by against or for; as, to provide against the inclemency of the weather; to provide for the education of a child. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. (Burke)

2. To stipulate previously; to condition; as, the agreement provides for an early completion of the work.