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eater

 [eet]   Origin

eat

   [eet] verb, ate [eyt; especially Brit. et] or (Archaic) eat [et, eet] ; eat·en or (Archaic) eat [et, eet] ; eat·ing; noun
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, especially wastefully; consume (often followed by up): Unexpected expenses have been eating up their savings.
EXPAND
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.
COLLAPSE
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.

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Eater is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
noun
10.
eats, Informal. food.
Verb phrases
11.
eat away/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. crow1 (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.
EXPAND
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.
COLLAPSE
Origin:
before 900; Middle English eten, Old English etan; cognate with German essen, Gothic itan, Latin edere

Related forms
eat·er, noun
out·eat, verb (used with object), -ate, -eat·en, -eat·ing.
un·der·eat, verb (used without object), -ate, -eat·en, -eat·ing.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To eater
Collins
World English Dictionary
eat (iːt)
 
—vb (often foll by into or through) , eats, eating, ate, eaten
1.  to take into the mouth and swallow (food, etc), esp after biting and chewing
2.  (tr; often foll by away or up) to destroy as if by eating: the damp had eaten away the woodwork
3.  (often foll by into) to use up or waste: taxes ate into his inheritance
4.  to make (a hole, passage, etc) by eating or gnawing: rats ate through the floor
5.  to take or have (a meal or meals): we always eat at six
6.  (tr) to include as part of one's diet: he doesn't eat fish
7.  informal (tr) to cause to worry; make anxious: what's eating you?
8.  slang (tr) to perform cunnilingus or fellatio upon
9.  informal I'll eat my hat if I will be greatly surprised if (something happens that proves me wrong)
10.  eat one's heart out to brood or pine with grief or longing
11.  eat one's words to take back something said; recant; retract
12.  eat out of someone's hand to be entirely obedient to someone
13.  eat someone out of house and home to ruin someone, esp one's parent or one's host, by consuming all his food
 
[Old English etan; related to Gothic itan, Old High German ezzan, Latin edere, Greek edein, Sanskrit admi]
 
'eater
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
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). Transferred sense of "slow, gradual corrosion or destruction" is from 1550s. Meaning "to preoccupy, engross"
EXPAND
(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. The slang phrase to eat one's words is from 1570s; to eat one's heart out is from 1590s; for eat one's hat, see hat.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
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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Slang Dictionary

eat (sth) definition


  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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