cater
v.v. to provide what is needed or wanted for a specific group of people. You often use it when talking about food services or businesses that focus on a particular type of customer.
v. to provide food and drink, typically at a social event or for a specific group; to supply what is required or desired by a particular audience. Often used with the preposition 'to' or 'for'.
The restaurant can cater for large wedding parties.
This new streaming service aims to cater to fans of classic cinema who cannot find those films elsewhere.
While the main gallery focuses on contemporary art, the smaller wing is designed to cater to local historians interested in the city's industrial heritage.
From Middle English catour (“acater, provisioner”), aphetic form of acatour (“acater”), from Old French acater (“to buy, to purchase”). Equivalent to cate + -er.
Probably ultimately from French quatre (“four”), possibly via cater (“change-ringing”), although Liberman argues for a derivation from a North Germanic prefix meaning "crooked, angled, clumsy" from which he also derives cater-cousin and, via Norse, Old Irish cittach (“left-handed, awkward”). He finds this more likely than extension of the dice and change-ringing term cater as an adverb, given the likely cognates in other Germanic languages. Caterpillar and caterwaul are unrelated, being derived from cognates to cat, but may have influenced the pronunciation of Liberman's proposed earlier *cate- or undergone similar sound changes.
From French quatre (“four”). Doublet of cuatro.
The verb is often intransitive when followed by 'to' or 'for', but can be transitive when referring to the act of providing food for an event.
The hotel caters everyone.The hotel caters to everyone.When meaning to provide for someone's needs, the verb usually requires the preposition 'to' or 'for'.