eat
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: EAT
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ēt, IPA(key): /iːt/
- (General American) enPR: ēt, IPA(key): /it/
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file) Audio (General American): (file) - Rhymes: -iːt
Etymology 1
From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti, from *h₁ed- (“to eat”).
Verb
eat (third-person singular simple present eats, present participle eating, simple past ate or (dialectal) et or (obsolete) eat, past participle eaten or (dialectal) etten)
- To ingest; to be ingested.
- (transitive, intransitive) To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it.
- He's eating an apple. / Don't disturb me now; can't you see that I'm eating?
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 8:8, column 2:
- But meate commendeth vs not to God: for neither if we eate, are we the better: neither if wee eate not, are we the woꝛſe.
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
- At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
- 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
- But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw […] that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.
- 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria:
- Shepard: Everyone on this station is chafing under Anoleis' extortion. You might end up a hero.
Lorik Qui'in: My employers rely on the goodwill of the Executive Board to work here.
Wrex: If these "executives" don't blame Anoleis for provoking this, they're fools. You should eat them.
- (intransitive) To consume a meal.
- What time do we eat this evening?
- 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- (intransitive, ergative) To be eaten.
- It's a soup that eats like a meal.
- 1852, The New Monthly Magazine, page 310:
- I don't know any quarter in England where you get such undeniable mutton—mutton that eats like mutton, instead of the nasty watery, stringy, turnipy stuff, neither mutton nor lamb, that other countries are inundated with.
- 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In Which the Minstrelsy Proceeds”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 73:
- [D]ish him with thlitheth of orangeth, barberrieth, grapeth, goothberrieth, and butter; and you will find that he eaths deliciouthly either with farced pain or gammon pain.
- [D]ish him [the fish] with slices of oranges, barberries, grapes, gooseberries, and butter; and you will find that he eats deliriously either with farced pain or gammon pain.
- (copulative, intransitive) To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed (typically as "eat healthy" or "eat good").
- (transitive, intransitive) To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it.
- To use up.
- (transitive, often with up) To destroy, consume, or use up.
- This project is eating up all the money.
- 1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859, →OCLC:
- His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
- (transitive, programming, informal) To consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it.
- 2005, Wallace B. McClure, Gregory A. Beamer, John J. Croft IV, Professional ADO.NET 2, page 246:
- A bigger problem, however, is that if you catch/eat an exception and do nothing with it, you are very likely introducing subtle bugs in your application that will be next to impossible to track down.
- (transitive, informal, of a device) To damage, destroy, or fail to eject a removable part or an inserted object.
- The VHS recorder just ate the tape and won't spit it out.
- John is late for the meeting because the photocopier ate his report.
- 1991, Shane Black, The Last Boy Scout (movie)
- No! There's a problem with the cassette player. Don't press fast forward or it eats the tape!
- (transitive, informal, of a vending machine or similar device) To consume money (or other instruments of value, such as a token) deposited or inserted by a user, while failing to either provide the intended product or service or return the payment.
- The video game in the corner just ate my quarter.
- 1977, Nancy Dowd, Slap Shot (movie)
- Hey! This stupid [soda vending] machine ate my quarter.
- (transitive, often with up) To destroy, consume, or use up.
- (transitive, informal) To cause (someone) to worry.
- What's eating you?
- (transitive, business) To take the loss in a transaction.
- 1988, George Gallo, Midnight Run (movie)
- I have to have him in court tomorrow, if he doesn't show up, I forfeit the bond and I have to eat the $300,000.
- 1999, Ronald S. Beitman, Liquor Liability: A Primer for Winning Your Case, page 27:
- The server made an error when taking the order. The bartender prepared two scorpion bowls. When the error was realized the bartender was faced with having to "eat" the extra scorpion bowl […]
- 2011, Lorenzo Carver, Venture Capital Valuation:
- When they were doing it with the valuation professionals, they were billing the client, but the valuation professional in a lot of those early cases had to eat the cost of showing the auditor how the auditors' test model was incorrect.
- 1988, George Gallo, Midnight Run (movie)
- (transitive, slang) To be injured or killed by (something such as a firearm or its projectile), especially in the mouth.
- 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)
- I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and Eddie Mars' gang. I dodge bullets and eat saps.
- 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:
- And, of course, there was Brian Rusk, who had eaten a bullet at the ripe old age of eleven.
- 1997, A. A. Gill, "Diary" (in The Spectator, 1 November 1997):
- Friends are only necessary in the ghastly country, where you have to have them, along with rubber boots and a barometer and secateurs, to put off bucolic idiocy, a wet brain, or eating the 12-bore.
- 2012, Kaya McLaren, How I Came to Sparkle Again: A Novel, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN:
- Mike had been to other calls where someone had eaten a gun. He knew to expect teeth embedded in the ceiling and brains dripping off it.
- 2017, Edward W. Robertson, Stardust, Edward W. Robertson:
- The animal was sweating and scared and MacAdams was surprised when they finished up without either of them eating a kick.
- 2018, Daniel Tomazic, Of Bullies and Men: Young Adult Fiction, →ISBN, page 18:
- There was a resounding smacking noise and Georgy was sure Philip had just eaten a fist.
- 1944, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman, The Big Sleep (screenplay)
- (transitive, intransitive) To corrode or erode.
- The acid rain ate away the statue. The strong acid eats through the metal.
- (transitive, slang) To perform oral sex (on a person or body part).
- Eat me!
- I ate his ass.
- Yeah, eat that dick / eat that pussy.
- (stative, slang) To be very good; to rule, to slay.
- You ate that performance!
- This song eats!
- Synonyms: devour, eat and leave no crumbs, bang, rock, slap
- 2024 June 21, Jason P. Frank, “Who Else Needs to Work It Out on a Remix?”, in Vulture:
- Lorde and Charli XCX confronted each other via song like some kind of alt-pop musical-theater number, and it ate. “The girl, so confusing version with lorde,” like all the best pop music, features multiple moments that burrow into your brain and refuse to leave, giving you no other choice but to simply relisten to the track.
- (transitive, slang) To annex.
Conjugation
| infinitive | (to) eat | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| present tense | past tense | ||
| 1st-person singular | eat | ate, et*, eat† | |
| 2nd-person singular | eat, eatest† | ate, et*, eat†, atest† | |
| 3rd-person singular | eats, eateth† | ate, et*, eat† | |
| plural | eat | ||
| subjunctive | eat | ate, et*, eat† | |
| imperative | eat | — | |
| participles | eating | eaten, etten*, eat† | |
Synonyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from eat (verb)
- all-eating
- all-you-can-eat
- anteating
- appetite comes with eating
- ass eating
- binge eat
- binge eating
- binge eating disorder
- bitch eating crackers
- bite to eat
- bone-eating snot flower worm
- cat that ate the canary
- chalk-eating weasel
- cheese eating
- cheese-eating
- cheese-eating surrender monkey
- cheese-eating surrender monkeys
- clean eating
- comfort-eat
- comfort eating
- competitive eating
- could eat the arse out of a low flying duck
- could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck
- could eat the crutch from a low flying duck
- crab-eating fox
- crab-eating frog
- crab-eating macaque
- crab-eating raccoon
- crab-eating rat
- crab-eating zorro
- dog eat dog
- dog-eat-dog
- don't shit where you eat
- eat a bag of dicks
- eatability
- eatable
- eat a burger
- eat a dick
- eatage
- eat-all-you-can
- eat and leave no crumbs
- eat and run
- eat an elephant one bite at a time
- eat ass
- eatathon
- eat away
- eat away at
- eat beaver
- eat boiled crow
- eat cookie
- eat crow
- eat cunt
- eat dirt
- eat down
- eater
- eatertainment
- eatery, eaterie
- eat for breakfast
- eat for two
- eat from someone's hand
- eat from the palm of someone's hand
- eat humble pie
- eat in
- eat-in
- eating
- eating ass
- eating club
- eating-disordered
- eating establishment
- eating knife
- eat into
- eat it
- eat lead
- eat like a bird
- eat like a horse
- eat like an animal
- eat like a pig
- eat my ass
- eat my dust
- eat my shorts
- eat one's cake and have it too
- eat one's dinners
- eat one's emotions
- eat one's feelings
- eat one's fill
- eat one's gun
- eat one's hat
- eat one's head off
- eat one's heart
- eat one's heart out
- eat one's own
- eat one's own dog food
- eat one's pride
- eat one's seed corn
- eat one's terms
- eat one's Wheaties
- eat one's words
- eat one's young
- eat-out
- eat out
- eat out of someone's hand
- eat out of the palm of someone's hand
- eat pussy
- eats
- eat shit
- eat someone alive
- eat someone for breakfast
- eat someone out of house and home
- eat someone's dust
- eat someone's heart
- eat someone's lunch
- eat something up
- eat something up with a spoon
- eat the baby
- eat the bread of idleness
- eat the leek
- eat the mic
- eat the onion
- eat the rich
- eat the seed corn
- eat to windward
- eat twat
- eat up
- eat up with a spoon
- eat what you kill
- eatworthy
- fire eating
- fish-eating grin
- fish-eating rat
- flesh-eating
- flesh-eating disease
- floor one could eat off
- fress
- go and eat coke
- good enough to eat
- grin like a mule eating briars
- have one's cake and eat it
- have one's cake and eat it too
- have you eaten
- heat-and-eat
- how the cow ate the cabbage
- I could eat a brick
- I could eat a horse
- I don't eat beef
- I don't eat fish
- I don't eat meat
- I don't eat pork
- lotus-eating
- maneating
- man-eating
- meat-eating
- miseat
- monkey-eating eagle
- never eat shredded wheat
- never eat soggy waffles
- never eat soggy wheat
- night eating syndrome
- noneating
- opium-eating
- outeat
- overeat
- pay-as-you-eat
- pussy eating
- real men don't eat quiche
- seedeating
- selective eating disorder
- shit-eating grin
- shit-eating smile
- sleep-eat
- sleepeat
- smile like a mule eating briars
- sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you
- sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you
- the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet
- the dog ate my homework
- the proof is in the eating
- the proof of the pudding is in the eating
- the vine that ate the South
- toadeating
- undereat
- uneat
- uneating
- what's eating
- what's eating you
- what's eating you?
- worm-eaten
- you are what you eat
Related terms
Translations
| ||||||
colloquial: cause to worry
|
eat a meal
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
Etymology 2
From Middle English ete, ate, æte, from Old English ǣt (“food, eating”), from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ētą (“food, thing to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognate with North Frisian ad, it (“food”), German Aas (“carrion”), Norwegian åt, Icelandic át (“food”).
Noun
eat (plural eats)
- (colloquial) Something to be eaten; a meal; a food item.
- 2011, William Chitty, Nigel Barker, Michael Valos, Integrated Marketing Communications, page 167:
- Eating a Picnic creates a flurry of wafer pieces, flying peanuts and chocolate crumbs. […] As well as being messy, Picnic happens to be a big eat – something of a consumption challenge in fact.
Anagrams
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Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈe.at/, [ˈeät̪]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈe.at/, [ˈɛːät̪]
Verb
eat
Pronunciation
Verb
eat
Etymology
From Old Frisian āwet, āet, from ā (“always, ever”) + *wiht (“thing, creature”) (from Proto-West Germanic *wihti). Compare English owt, aught.
Pronunciation
Pronoun
eat
Further reading
- “eat”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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