Meaning

verb give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance

verb supply food ready to eat; for parties and banquets

originProbably 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0