supply

Multiple Entries:
  supply    supple  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
supply1 /səˈplʌɪ/

▶verb (supplies, supplying, supplied)

• 1 make (something needed) available to someone.

  ■ provide with something needed.

  ■ be adequate to satisfy (a requirement or demand).

• 2 archaic take over (a vacant place or role).

▶noun (pl. supplies)

• 1 a stock or amount of something supplied or available.

  ■ the action of supplying.

• 2 [usu. as modifier] a person, especially a schoolteacher, acting as a temporary substitute for another.

• 3 (supplies) Brit. a grant of money by Parliament for the costs of government.

– phrases
on supply (of a schoolteacher) acting as a temporary substitute.
supply and demand the amount of a good or service available and the desire of buyers for it, considered as factors regulating its price.

– derivatives
supplier noun.

– origin ME: from OFr. soupleer, from L. supplere ‘fill up’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
supply2 /ˈsʌpli/

▶adverb variant spelling of supplely (see supple).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
supple/ˈsʌpl/

▶adjective (suppler, supplest) flexible or pliant. ▶verb make more flexible.

– derivatives
supplely (also supply) adverb,
suppleness noun.

– origin ME: from OFr. souple, from L. supplex, supplic- ‘submissive’, from sub- ‘under’ + placere ‘propitiate’.