1. Forced feeding that consists of the delivery of a nutrient solution (as through a nasal tube) to someone who cannot or will not eat.
2. The feeding of an animal, or a person, through a tube passed into the stomach.
3. The therapeutic use of a high-potency diet administered with a stomach tube.

Various applications of gavage

• Humans: for example, generally applied by passing a tube into the esophagus.
• Psychiatric hospitals: some patients may be force fed if they refuse to eat because of delusions or are trying to die.
• Prisoners: force fed when going on hunger strikes.
• Torture: using a naso-gastric tube considered torture because of pain in the nasal passage resulting in severe bleeding.
• Farm animals: force feeding of ducks and geese filling their crops, or gullets, (a pouch in the throat of many birds); resulting in an enlarged, fatty liver; to make their livers bigger for processing and selling as foie gras; which is used for gourmet cooking and eating.