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to provide food, service, etc., as for a party or wedding:
to cater for a banquet.
to provide or supply what amuses, is desired, or gives pleasure, comfort, etc. (usually followed by to or for):
to cater to popular demand; to cater to an invalid.
to provide food and service for:
to cater a party.
Contemporary Examples

Grilled Oystersby Christopher Idone Learn how to take the easy (and delicious) route to oyster heaven from a catering god.
What to Eat Cookstr.com August 31, 2009

If the thinking was that catering to the younger set would help to win more viewers, the network was grossly mistaken.
VMAs 2013: MTV’s Awards Show, Once Crazy, Is Getting Old Kevin Fallon August 21, 2013

I could count on about 20 years of catering to this possibly debilitated but still buying class.
The Great Untapped 80-Something Market Liz Smith March 15, 2010

But catering expressly to either group would be, as the Academy Awards producers have learned, a huge mistake.
VMAs 2013: MTV’s Awards Show, Once Crazy, Is Getting Old Kevin Fallon August 21, 2013

This then grew into a career spent creating wonderful new canapes for her catering company in London.
Let Them Eat Cake! Lydia Brownlow May 7, 2011

Historical Examples

It’ll be lovely; but how are we going to manage the catering department?
A Patriotic Schoolgirl Angela Brazil

He was catering for a gourmet in Furneaux, and rose to the requisite height.
The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley Louis Tracy

For one thing, avoid fixed rules and arbitrary ideas in catering.
The Library of Work and Play: Housekeeping Elizabeth Hale Gilman

He knew her independence of thought and action; it brooked no catering for favors.
Flamsted quarries Mary E. Waller

The progressive teacher of domestic arts no longer thinks of catering merely to the personal decorative sense of young girls.
Our Schools in War Time—and After Arthur Davis Dean

noun
the trade of a professional caterer
the food, etc, provided at a function by a caterer
verb
(intransitive; foll by for or to) to provide what is required or desired (for): to cater for a need, cater to your tastes
when intr, foll by for. to provide food, services, etc (for): we cater for parties, to cater a banquet
v.

“provide food for,” c.1600, from Middle English catour (n.) “buyer of provisions” (c.1400; late 13c. as a surname), a shortening of Anglo-French achatour “buyer” (Old North French acatour, Old French achatour, 13c., Modern French acheteur), from Old French achater “to buy,” originally “to buy provisions,” perhaps from Vulgar Latin *accaptare, from Latin ad- “to” + captare “to take, hold,” frequentative of capere “to take” (see capable).

Or else from Vulgar Latin *accapitare “to add to one’s capital,” with second element from verbal stem of Latin caput (genitive capitis); see capital (adj.). Figuratively from 1650s. Related: Catered; catering.