eat
(
t)
KEY
VERB:
ate
(
t)
KEY
,
eat·en
(
t
n)
KEY
,
eat·ing
,
eats
VERB:
tr.
-
- To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption.
- To take in and absorb as food:
a plant that eats insects; a cell that eats bacteria.
- To include habitually or by preference in one's diet:
a bird that eats insects, fruit, and seeds; stopped eating red meat on advice from her doctor.
- To destroy, ravage, or use up by or as if by ingesting:
"Covering news in the field eats money"
(George F. Will).
- To erode or corrode:
waves that ate away the beach; an acid that eats the surface of a machine part.
- To produce by or as if by eating:
Moths ate holes in our sweaters.
-
Slang
To absorb the cost or expense of:
"You can eat your loss and switch the remaining money to other investment portfolios"
(Marlys Harris).
-
Informal
To bother or annoy:
What's eating him?
-
Vulgar slang
To perform oral sex on.
VERB:
intr.
-
- To consume food.
- To have or take a meal.
- To exercise a consuming or eroding effect:
a drill that ate away at the rock; exorbitant expenses that were eating into profits.
- To cause persistent annoyance or distress:
"How long will it be before the frustration eats at you?"
(Howard Kaplan).
PHRASAL VERB:
eat up
Slang
- To receive or enjoy enthusiastically or avidly:
She really eats up the publicity.
- To believe without question:
He'll eat up whatever the broker tells him.
IDIOMS:
eat crow
- To be forced to accept a humiliating defeat.
eat (one's) heart out
- To feel bitter anguish or grief.
- To be consumed by jealousy.
eat (one's) words
- To retract something that one has said.
eat out of (someone's) hand
- To be manipulated or dominated by another.
eat (someone) alive
Slang
- To overwhelm or defeat thoroughly:
an inexperienced manager who was eaten alive in a competitive corporate environment.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English
eten, from Old English
etan; see
ed- in Indo-European roots
OTHER FORMS:
eater
(Noun)
SYNONYMS:
eat
, consume
, devour
, ingest
These verbs mean to take food into the body by the mouth:
ate a hearty dinner; greedily consumed the sandwich; hyenas devouring their prey; whales ingesting krill.
