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.
24.
eat someone's lunch, Slang. to thoroughly defeat, outdo, injure, etc.
25.
eat the wind out of, Nautical. to blanket (a sailing vessel sailing close-hauled) by sailing close on the weather side of.
[Origin: bef. 900; ME eten, OE etan; c. G essen, Goth itan, L edere]
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 cunnilingus on. Often used with out.
v.
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(s): 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.
Idiom(s):
eat crow
To be forced to accept a humiliating defeat.
Idiom(s):
eat (one's) heart out
To feel bitter anguish or grief.
To be consumed by jealousy.
Idiom(s):
eat (one's) words
To retract something that one has said.
Idiom(s):
eat out of (someone's) hand
To be manipulated or dominated by another.
Idiom(s):
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: 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.
O.E. etan (class V strong verb; past tense æt, pp. eten), from P.Gmc. *etanan (cf. O.N. eta, Goth. itan, Ger. essen), from PIE base *ed- "to eat" (see edible). Transf. sense of "slow, gradual corrosion or destruction" is from 1555. Meaning "to preoccupy, engross" (as in what's eating you?) first recorded 1893. Slang sexual sense of "do cunnilingus on" is first recorded 1927. Eat out "dine away from home" is from 1933; eatery "restaurant" is from 1901; eats (n.) "food" is considered colloquial, but it was present in O.E. The slang phrase to eat one's words is from 1571; to eat one's heart out is from 1596; for eat one's hat, see hat.
take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did you eat for dinner last night?"
2.
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"
3.
take in food; used of animals only; "This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat"; "What do whales eat?" [syn: feed]
4.
worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way; "What's eating you?"
5.
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" [syn: consume]
6.
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" [syn: corrode]
Eat\ ([=e]t), v. t. [imp. Ate ([=a]t; 277), Obsolescent & Colloq. Eat ([e^]t); p. p. Eaten ([=e]t"'n), Obs. or Colloq. Eat ([e^]t); p. pr. & vb. n. Eating.] [OE. eten, AS. etan; akin to OS. etan, OFries. eta, D. eten, OHG. ezzan, G. essen, Icel. eta, Sw. ["a]ta, Dan. [ae]de, Goth. itan, Ir. & Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. [root]6. Cf. Etch, Fret to rub, Edible.]1. To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. "To eat grass as oxen." --Dan. iv. 25. They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. --Ps. cvi. 28. The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine. --Gen. xli. 20. The lion had not eaten the carcass. --1 Kings xiii. 28. With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the junkets eat. --Milton. The island princes overbold Have eat our substance. --Tennyson. His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages. --Thackeray. 2. To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear. To eat humble pie. See under Humble. To eat of (partitive use). "Eat of the bread that can not waste." --Keble. To eat one's words, to retract what one has said. (See the Citation under Blurt.) To eat out, to consume completely. "Eat out the heart and comfort of it." --Tillotson. To eat the wind out of a vessel (Naut.), to gain slowly to windward of her. Syn: To consume; devour; gnaw; corrode.
![[P]](http://cache.lexico.com/g/d/premium_mh.gif){kind=small}
Audio Help [eet] Pronunciation Key verb, ate [eyt; especially Brit. et] Pronunciation Key or (Archaic
