Manger

A manger or trough is a rack for fodder, or a structure or feeder used to hold food for animals. The word comes from the Old French mangier (meaning "to eat"), from Latin mandere (meaning "to chew").¹

Mangers are mostly used in livestock raising² and generally found at stables and farmhouses. They are also used to feed wild animals, e.g., in nature reserves.

A similar trough providing drinking water for domestic or non-domestic animals is a watering trough and may be part of a larger watering structure called abreuvoir.

The manger is associated with nativity scenes where Mary and Joseph, forced by necessity to stay in a room for animals instead of a guest room, used a manger as a makeshift crib for the Baby Jesus.³ (Greek: φάτνη phatnē; Luke 2:7).⁴

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  18th century limestone mangers at The Devil's Farmhouse in Mellieha, Malta.
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  Donkey eating apples from a steel trough
• 
  Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490.