eat ( t)v. ate ( t), eat·en (t n), eat·ing, eats v.tr.1. a. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption. b. To take in and absorb as food: a plant that eats insects; a cell that eats bacteria. c. 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. 2. To destroy, ravage, or use up by or as if by ingesting: "Covering news in the field eats money" George F. Will. 3. To erode or corrode: waves that ate away the beach; an acid that eats the surface of a machine part. 4. To produce by or as if by eating: Moths ate holes in our sweaters. 5. Slang To absorb the cost or expense of: "You can eat your loss and switch the remaining money to other investment portfolios" Marlys Harris. 6. Informal To bother or annoy: What's eating him? 7. Vulgar slang To perform oral sex on. v.intr.1. a. To consume food. b. To have or take a meal. 2. To exercise a consuming or eroding effect: a drill that ate away at the rock; exorbitant expenses that were eating into profits. 3. To cause persistent annoyance or distress: "How long will it be before the frustration eats at you?" Howard Kaplan. Phrasal Verb: eat up Slang 1. To receive or enjoy enthusiastically or avidly: She really eats up the publicity. 2. 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 out1. To feel bitter anguish or grief. 2. 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.
[Middle English eten, from Old English etan; see ed- in Indo-European roots.]
eater n. 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. |
eat Verb [eating, ate, eaten] 1. to take (food) into the mouth and swallow it 2. to have a meal: sometimes we eat out of doors 3. Informal to make anxious or worried: what's eating you? 4. eat away or into or up to destroy or use up partly or wholly: inflation ate into the firm's profits eater n
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms | Verb | 1. | eat - take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did you eat for dinner last night?"ingest, consume, have, take in, take - serve oneself to, or consume regularly; "Have another bowl of chicken soup!"; "I don't take sugar in my coffee" eat - eat a meal; take a meal; "We did not eat until 10 P.M. because there were so many phone calls"; "I didn't eat yet, so I gladly accept your invitation" eat - eat a meal; take a meal; "We did not eat until 10 P.M. because there were so many phone calls"; "I didn't eat yet, so I gladly accept your invitation" wash down - eat food accompanied by lots of liquid; also use metaphorically; "She washed down her dinner with a bottle of red wine"; "He washes down his worries with a nightly glass of whisky" wolf, wolf down - eat hastily; "The teenager wolfed down the pizza" slurp - eat noisily; "He slurped his soup" pitch in, dig in - eat heartily; "The food was placed on the table and the children pitched in" gobble, bolt - eat hastily without proper chewing; "Don't bolt your food!" nibble, piece, pick - eat intermittently; take small bites of; "He pieced at the sandwich all morning"; "She never eats a full meal--she just nibbles" ruminate - chew the cuds; "cows ruminate" eat, feed - take in food; used of animals only; "This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat"; "What do whales eat?" dip, dunk - dip into a liquid while eating; "She dunked the piece of bread in the sauce" eat up, polish off, finish - finish eating all the food on one's plate or on the table; "She polished off the remaining potatoes" fill up, fill - eat until one is sated; "He filled up on turkey" | | 2. | eat - eat a meal; take a meal; "We did not eat until 10 P.M. because there were so many phone calls"; "I didn't eat yet, so I gladly accept your invitation"ingest, consume, have, take in, take - serve oneself to, or consume regularly; "Have another bowl of chicken soup!"; "I don't take sugar in my coffee" take away, take out - buy and consume food from a restaurant or establishment that sells prepared food; "We'll take out pizza, since I am too tired to cook" dine - have supper; eat dinner; "We often dine with friends in this restaurant" picnic - eat alfresco, in the open air; "We picnicked near the lake on this gorgeous Sunday" eat - take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did you eat for dinner last night?" eat - take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did you eat for dinner last night?" break bread - have a meal, usually with company; "The early Christian disciples broke bread together" nosh, snack - eat a snack; eat lightly; "She never loses weight because she snacks between meals" mess - eat in a mess hall lunch - take the midday meal; "At what time are you lunching?" brunch - eat a meal in the late morning; "We brunch in Sundays" breakfast - eat an early morning meal; "We breakfast at seven" binge, englut, engorge, glut, gorge, gormandise, gormandize, gourmandize, ingurgitate, overeat, overgorge, overindulge, pig out, scarf out, satiate, stuff - overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself; "She stuffed herself at the dinner"; "The kids binged on ice cream" eat up, polish off, finish - finish eating all the food on one's plate or on the table; "She polished off the remaining potatoes" | | 3. | eat - take in food; used of animals only; "This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat"; "What do whales eat?"ingest, consume, have, take in, take - serve oneself to, or consume regularly; "Have another bowl of chicken soup!"; "I don't take sugar in my coffee" eat - take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did you eat for dinner last night?" forage - wander and feed; "The animals forage in the woods" raven - feed greedily; "The lions ravened the bodies" suckle - suck milk from the mother's breasts; "the infant was suckling happily" | | 4. | eat - worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way; "What's eating you?"vex, worry - disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress; "I cannot sleep--my daughter's health is worrying me" | | 5. | eat - use up (resources or materials); "this car consumes a lot of gas"; "We exhausted our savings"; "They run through 20 bottles of wine a week"run out - exhaust the supply of; "We ran out of time just as the discussion was getting interesting" drain - deplete of resources; "The exercise class drains me of energy" spend - spend completely; "I spend my pocket money in two days" take, use up, occupy - require (time or space); "It took three hours to get to work this morning"; "This event occupied a very short time" | | 6. | eat - cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid; "The acid corroded the metal"; "The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink"damage - inflict damage upon; "The snow damaged the roof"; "She damaged the car when she hit the tree" rust, corrode - become destroyed by water, air, or a corrosive such as an acid; "The metal corroded"; "The pipes rusted" |
eat verb 2. have a meal, lunch, breakfast, dine, snack, feed, graze ( informal) have lunch, have dinner, have breakfast, nosh ( slang) take food, have supper, break bread, chow down ( slang) take nourishment  Translations eat [ pt ate, pp eaten] [iːt, eɪt, ˈiːtn] vt → comereat into, eat away at vt fus → corroer eat up vt [+ meal etc] → comerse;
 eat [ ate , pt , eaten , pp ] [iːt, eɪt, ˈiːtn] vt, vi → manger; eat up vt [+ food] → finir (de manger);
 eat [iːt] [ ate , pt , eaten , pp ] vt, vi → essen; eat away at eat vt fus (metal) → anfressen;
 eat [ pt ate, pp eaten] [iːt, eɪt, ˈiːtn] vt → mangiareeat away at, eat into vt fus → rodere
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eaten away
