eat

(ēt)

v. ate (āt), eat·en (ēt′n), eat·ing, eats

v.tr.

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 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 cunnilingus or anilingus on. Often used with out.

v.intr.

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 out

1. 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.]

eat′er 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.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	eater - someone who consumes food for nourishment feeder consumer - a person who uses goods or services devourer - someone who eats greedily or voraciously diner - a person eating a meal (especially in a restaurant) dunker - an eater who dips food into a liquid before eating it; "he was a dunker--he couldn't eat a doughnut without a cup of coffee to dunk it in" glutton, gourmand, gourmandizer, trencherman - a person who is devoted to eating and drinking to excess gobbler - a hasty eater who swallows large mouthfuls luncher - someone who is eating lunch mouth - a person conceived as a consumer of food; "he has four mouths to feed" mycophage, mycophagist - a person or animal who eats fungi (especially mushrooms) nosher, snacker - someone who eats lightly or eats snacks between meals omnivore - a person who eats all kinds of foods picknicker, picnicker - a person who is picnicking gorger, scoffer - someone who eats food rapidly and greedily vegetarian - eater of fruits and grains and nuts; someone who eats no meat or fish or (often) any animal products
	2.	eater - any green goods that are good to eat; "these apples are good eaters" garden truck, green goods, green groceries, produce - fresh fruits and vegetable grown for the market

Translations

едок

eater

[ˈiːtəʳ] N

1. (= person) to be a big eater → tener siempre buen apetito, ser comilón
I'm not a big eater → yo como bastante poco

2. (= apple) → manzana f de mesa

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

eater

[ˈiːtə^r] n → mangeur/euse m/f
a fussy eater → une personne difficile sur la nourriture meat-eater

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

eater

→ Esser(in) m(f)

(= apple) → Essapfel m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

eater

[ˈiːtəʳ] n a big eater → un(a) gran mangiatore/trice, una buona forchetta

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The Marionettes recognize their brother Pinocchio, and greet him with loud cheers; but the Director, Fire Eater, happens along and poor Pinocchio almost loses his life

View in context

"There hasn't been a man eater around here for two years, Bwana says, and the game is so plentiful that there is no necessity to drive Numa to human flesh.

From this Hanson knew that a man eater had wandered into the district or been developed by the aging of one of the many lions who ranged the plains and hills by night, or lay up in the cool wood by day.

View in context

Whenever the people grumbled too loudly the Bug sang a new song, and Big-Fat said it was God's word that we should kill Meat- Eaters, and Tiger-Face led us over the divide to kill and be killed.

I stole a wife from the Meat- Eaters, and went to live in the caves of the high mountains where they could not find me.

View in context

"And now, children, bless you, you are now members of the clan of Abalone Eaters, and I solemnly enjoin you, never, no matter what the circumstances, pound abalone meat without chanting the sacred words I have revealed unto you."

Next Sunday the Tribe of Abalone Eaters will descend upon you here in Bierce's Cove, and you will be able to see the rites, the writers and writeresses, down even to the Iron Man with the basilisk eyes, vulgarly known as the King of the Sacerdotal Lizards."

Is he not the Cave-Bear Pot-Walloper and Gridironer, the most fearsome, and, next to me, the most exalted, of all the Abalone Eaters?"

View in context

Below him a little were the vanguard of the deer; below these, again, the pig and the wild buffalo; and on the opposite bank, where the tall trees came down to the water's edge, was the place set apart for the Eaters of Flesh--the tiger, the wolves, the panther, the bear, and the others.

Now and again they asked some question of the Eaters of Flesh across the river, but all the news was bad, and the roaring hot wind of the Jungle came and went between the rocks and the rattling branches, and scattered twigs, and dust on the water.

Never again would he eat their fruit; but from that day he revenged himself upon the deer, and the others, the Eaters of Grass," said Baloo.

View in context

The Taiwan-based TKK Fried Chicken chain has been named among the 25 best fried chicken brands in New York, according to gourmet website Eater (New York).

Taiwan's TKK fried chicken among 25 best fried chicken brands in New York