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eat away

 - 5 dictionary results

eat

  [eet] verb, ate [eyt; especially Brit. et] or (Archaic) eat [et, eet] ; eat⋅en or (Archaic) eat [et, eet] ; eat⋅ing; noun
Use eat away in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to take into the mouth and swallow for nourishment; chew and swallow (food).
2. to consume by or as if by devouring gradually; wear away; corrode: The patient was eaten by disease and pain.
3. to make (a hole, passage, etc.), as by gnawing or corrosion.
4. to ravage or devastate: a forest eaten by fire.
5. to use up, esp. wastefully; consume (often fol. by up): Unexpected expenses have been eating up their savings.
6. to absorb or pay for: The builder had to eat the cost of the repairs.
7. Slang: Vulgar. to perform cunnilingus or fellatio on.
–verb (used without object)
8. to consume food; take a meal: We'll eat at six o'clock.
9. to make a way, as by gnawing or corrosion: Acid ate through the linoleum.
–noun
10. eats, Informal. food.
—Verb phrases
11. eat away or into, to destroy gradually, as by erosion: For eons, the pounding waves ate away at the shoreline.
12. eat out, to have a meal at a restaurant rather than at home.
13. eat up,
a. to consume wholly.
b. to show enthusiasm for; take pleasure in: The audience ate up everything he said.
c. to believe without question.
—Idioms
14. be eating someone, Informal. to worry, annoy, or bother: Something seems to be eating him—he's been wearing a frown all day.
15. eat crow. crow 1 (def. 7).
16. eat high off the hog. hog (def. 9).
17. eat humble pie. humble pie (def. 3).
18. eat in, to eat or dine at home.
19. eat one's heart out. heart (def. 24).
20. eat one's terms. term (def. 17).
21. eat one's words. word (def. 15).
22. eat out of one's hand. hand (def. 49).
23. 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

Related forms:
eater, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Slang Dictionary
eat (sth)

  1. tv.
    to consume something rapidly, such as food or money. : Running this household eats my income up.
  2. tv.
    to believe something. : Those people really eat that stuff up about tax reduction.
  3. tv.
    to appreciate something. : The stuff about the federal budget went over well. They really ate up the whole story.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

eat 
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: eat
Pronunciation: 'Et
Function: verb
Inflected Form: ate /'At, chiefly Brit 'et/; eat·en /'Et-&n/; eat·ing
transitive senses
1 : to take in through the mouth as food : ingest, chew, and swallow in turn
2 : to consume gradually : CORRODE eat intransitive senses
: to take food ora meal
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

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

  1. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption.

  2. To consume, ravage, or destroy by or as if by ingesting, such as by a disease.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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