food held in the mouth
Archaic noun referring to food held in one's mouth, now only encountered in the fixed expression 哺を吐く (to spit out food held in the mouth).
See also: 哺を吐く
There is an old expression, 哺を吐く, meaning to spit out food held in the mouth.
extraordinary efforts to recruit talent
Archaic kanji form; this word is almost never used independently in modern Japanese.
The historical derivation is uncertain; the kanji 哺 is conventionally associated with the meaning of holding food in the mouth.