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.
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.
The ancient Hebrews would not eat with the Egyptians (Gen. 43:32). In the time of our Lord they would not eat with Samaritans (John 4:9), and were astonished that he ate with publicans and sinners (Matt. 9:11). The Hebrews originally sat at table, but afterwards adopted the Persian and Chaldean practice of reclining (Luke 7:36-50). Their principal meal was at noon (Gen. 43:16; 1 Kings 20:16; Ruth 2:14; Luke 14:12). The word "eat" is used metaphorically in Jer. 15:16; Ezek. 3:1; Rev. 10:9. In John 6:53-58, "eating and drinking" means believing in Christ. Women were never present as guests at meals (q.v.).
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