a beginning from which an enterprise is launched; "he uses other people's ideas as a springboard for his own"; "reality provides the jumping-off point for his illusions"; "the point of departure of international comparison cannot be an institution but must be the function it carries out"
the scientific study of food and drink (especially in humans)
(physiology) the organic process of nourishing or being nourished; the processes by which an organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and maintenance
any of a class of solid or semisolid viscous substances obtained either as exudations from certain plants or prepared by polymerization of simple molecules