eat
Americanverb (used with object)
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to take into the mouth and swallow for nourishment; chew and swallow (food).
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to consume by or as if by devouring gradually; wear away; corrode.
The patient was eaten by disease and pain.
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to make (a hole, passage, etc.), as by gnawing or corrosion.
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to ravage or devastate.
a forest eaten by fire.
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to use up, especially wastefully; consume (often followed byup ).
Unexpected expenses have been eating up their savings.
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to absorb or pay for.
The builder had to eat the cost of the repairs.
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Slang: Vulgar. to perform cunnilingus or fellatio on.
verb (used without object)
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to consume food; take a meal.
We'll eat at six o'clock.
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to make a way, as by gnawing or corrosion.
Acid ate through the linoleum.
noun
verb phrase
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eat away / into to destroy gradually, as by erosion.
For eons, the pounding waves ate away at the shoreline.
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eat up
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to consume wholly.
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to show enthusiasm for; take pleasure in.
The audience ate up everything he said.
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to believe without question.
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eat out to have a meal at a restaurant rather than at home.
idioms
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be eating someone, to worry, annoy, or bother.
Something seems to be eating him—he's been wearing a frown all day.
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eat one's words. word.
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eat one's heart out. heart.
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eat someone's lunch, to thoroughly defeat, outdo, injure, etc.
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eat in, to eat or dine at home.
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eat someone out of house and home, to eat so much as to strain someone's resources of food or money.
A group of hungry teenagers can eat you out of house and home.
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eat one's terms. term.
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eat crow. crow.
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eat the wind out of, to blanket (a sailing vessel sailing close-hauled) by sailing close on the weather side of.
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eat humble pie. humble pie.
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eat out of one's hand. hand.
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eat clean. clean.
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eat high off the hog. hog.
verb
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to take into the mouth and swallow (food, etc), esp after biting and chewing
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(tr; often foll by away or up) to destroy as if by eating
the damp had eaten away the woodwork
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(often foll by into) to use up or waste
taxes ate into his inheritance
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to make (a hole, passage, etc) by eating or gnawing
rats ate through the floor
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to take or have (a meal or meals)
we always eat at six
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(tr) to include as part of one's diet
he doesn't eat fish
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informal (tr) to cause to worry; make anxious
what's eating you?
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slang (tr) to perform cunnilingus or fellatio upon
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informal I will be greatly surprised if (something happens that proves me wrong)
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to brood or pine with grief or longing
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to take back something said; recant; retract
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to be entirely obedient to someone
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to ruin someone, esp one's parent or one's host, by consuming all his food
abbreviation
Other Word Forms
- eater noun
- outeat verb (used with object)
- undereat verb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of eat
First recorded before 900; Middle English eten, Old English etan; cognate with German essen, Gothic itan, Latin edere, esse, Homeric Greek édein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
