▪ I. eat, v.
(iːt)
pa. tense ate, eat (eɪt, ɛt, iːt). pa. pple. eaten (ˈiːt(ə)n). Forms: inf. 1–2 et-, eat-, eatt-, eotan, 2–4 eat-, eoten, ete(n, (2–3 aeten, 4 ethen, 3–4 hete, heyt), 4–6 ete, ette, (4 eete, ehyt, 4–5 eyt(e), 3–7 eate, 6 Sc. eait, eit, 6– eat. pa. tense 1–3 æt, (2 æat), 2–4 et(t, 4–6 ete, 3–4 at, (4 hete), 4–5 eet(te, 6–7 eate, 7–9 eat, 6– ate. pa. pple. 1–5 eten, 4–5 ete, eete(n, 4–6 etin(e, -un, -yn, ettyn, 6 Sc. eatin, eittin, 7–9 eat, 8–9 ate, 7– eaten.
[Common Teut. and OE. etan str. vb. (3rd sing. pr. ytt, ieteþ, pa. tense 1st, 3rd sing. ǽt, æt, pl. ǽton, pa. pple. eten) = OFris. ita, eta, OS. etan (MDu., Du. eten), OHG. ezan, ezzan (MHG. ezzen, mod.G. essen), ON. eta (Sw. äta, Da. äde), Goth. itan:—OTeut. etan = L. ed-ĕre, Gr. ἔδ-ειν, Ir., Gael. ith, Lith. ed-, Skr. ad-. The accentuation of OE. MSS. shows that this verb differed, as in Goth. and ON., from other verbs of the same conjugation in having a long vowel in the pa. tense sing. ǽt, whence the mod. eat (iːt); but a form æt, with short vowel, must also have existed, as is proved by the ME. form at, mod. ate. The pronunc. (ɛt) is commonly associated with the written form ate, but perh. belongs rather to eat, with shortened vowel after analogy of wk. vbs. read, lead, etc.; cf. dial. (bɛt) pa. tense of beat.]
I. To consume for nutriment.
1. a. trans. To take into the mouth piecemeal, and masticate and swallow as food; to consume as food. Usually of solids only.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter xlix. [l.] 13 Ah ic eotu flesc ferra. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John vi. 54 Se hæfð ece lif þe ytt [1160 Hatton et] min flæsc. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 181 For þat þu ete þat ich þe forboden hadde. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 337 Sum ȝhe ðer at, and sum ȝhe nam, And bar it to her fere adam. a 1300 Cursor M. (Cott.) 922 Þou sal wit..suinc Win þat þou sal ete and drinc. Ibid. 11111 He hete na bred ne dranc na win. 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxxvii. 30 Et this ȝer that freeli ben sprunge, and in the secunde ȝer et appelis. c 1400 Mandeville ii. (1839) 11 That Tree that Adam ete the appulle of. c 1420 Liber Cocorum 29 Tho heroun is rosted..And eton with gynger. c 1449 Pecock Repr. 498 The Tacianys..helden that fleisch schulde not be ete. 1508 Fisher Wks. i. (1876) 56 Ete vnholsome metes, and anone cometh sekenes. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 174 A synner is not worthy the breed that he eateth. 1557 North Gueuara's Diall Pr. (1619) 700/1 In that golden age..they..eate rootes for breade and fruites for flesh. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 724 Whoso eats thereof forthwith attains Wisdom. 1763 Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury I. 93 Whitebait..are only to be eat at Greenwich. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §22. 155 Up to this point I had eaten nothing. |
b. Of liquid or semifluid food. Now chiefly with reference to soup, or other similar food for which a spoon is used.
| 1644 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 75 We eat excellent cream. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1704) 405, I observed it afterwards not only to eat Milk. 1789 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ep. falling Minis. Wks. 1812 II. 127 He might have eat his soup. 1885 Sinnett Karma II. 36 He began to eat the soup. |
c. In phrases, to have something, enough, little, etc. to eat; formerly also to have to eat, to give (a person) to eat. Cf. F. donner à manger.
In some dialects ‘something to eat’ is the common expression for food: ‘The something to eat at the hotel was very good’ (Sheffield).
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. iii. xi. §3 Seo leo bringð his hungreᵹum hwelpum hwæt to etanne. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 147 Mon . leuseð his fleis, hwenne he him ȝefeð lutel to etene. a 1300 Cursor M. 13501 All þai had i-nogh at ette. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 6191 Yhe wald noght gyfe me at ete. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 17 Þei hadden not to ete. 1611 Bible 2 Chron. xxxi. 10 Wee have had enough to eate. 1887 Pall Mall G. 13 Oct. 2/2 We had hardly anything to eat all the while we were prisoners. |
† d. fig. To submit to, ‘swallow’ (an insult, an injury). Also, To treasure up, ‘feed upon’ (thoughts, words, etc.); orig. a Biblical idiom.
| 1382 Wyclif Jer. xv. 16 Found ben thi wrdys, and Y eet hem [1611 I did eate them]. 1607 Dekker Sir T. Wyatt Wks. 1873 III. 119 Ile eate no wrongs, lets all die, and Ile dye. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 185 Hee vtters them as he had eaten ballads, and all mens eares grew to his Tunes. |
e. absol. with of in partitive sense. In early ME. sometimes with gen.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. iii. 17 For ðan..ðu æte of ðam treowe. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 11 Moyses..þes daȝes..nefre ne ete mennisses metes. c 1175 Cott. Hom. 241 Se þe of þese brad ett, ne sterfeð he nefer. c 1205 Lay. 18858 Of his breosten scullen æten aðele scopes. a 1300 Cursor M. 3944 O sinnu etes [v.r. etis] neuer juu. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 5258 Hymself dronke whit wyn & eten of hure vytaile. 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 108 Finding him eating of an Albrew. 1611 Bible Ex. xxxiv. 15 Lest..thou eate of his sacrifice. 1835 Willis Pencillings I. ii. 19 But the rest eat very voraciously of a loaf of coarse bread. |
f. colloq. fig. To receive (esp. a stage performance) with gusto; to acclaim. Also eat up. (Cf. devour v. 6.)
| 1911 L. Merrick Peggy Harper iv. 197 They ate the piece—it was only Galbraith they were guying. 1917 Wodehouse Uneasy Money iv. 23 I'm an English countess, doing barefoot dancing to work off the mortgage on the ancestral castle, and they eat me. 1919 F. Hurst Humoresque 195 You wait until you see the way they're going to eat me up in the court scene in ‘Saint Elba’. 1928 ‘Ian Hay’ Poor Gentleman iii. 58 The highbrow and pacifist reviewers there simply ate it [sc. the book] up, and said that if this was war, war ought to be stopped. 1949 N. Mitford Love in Cold Climate 261 London society..simply ate Cedric up, occasional echoes of his great success even reaching Oxford. 1958 K. Amis I like it Here 158 He held forth instead in a series of essays... The Sunday Times would absolutely eat this chap. |
g. U.S. slang. To practise fellatio or cunnilingus on (a person). Cf. to eat pussy s.v. pussy n. 6. Also used absol.
| 1927 Immortalia 167 He tried at her dent But when his thing bent, He got down on his knees and he ate 'er. 1951 S. Longstreet Pedlocks iv. x. 249 ‘I could eat you with a spoon.’ ‘Never mind the dirty remarks.’ 1975 L. Alther Kinflicks v. 133 ‘Eat me,’ he said, seizing my head with his hands and fitting my mouth around his cock and moving my head back and forth. 1976 N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone xii. 276 Cutter winked lasciviously at the girl. ‘Well, I don't know,’ he said. ‘I already did quite a bit of eating this morning.’ Monk, turning scarlet, closed her eyes. |
2. Phrases, chiefly transf. and fig. a. to eat one's terms: a colloquial phrase for ‘to be studying for the Bar’; students being required to have dined in the Hall of an Inn of Court three or more times during each of twelve terms before they can be ‘called’. Also, to eat dinners.
| 1834 Macaulay Pitt Misc. (1860) II. 312 He had already begun to eat his terms. 1850 Thackeray Pendennis xxix, In term time, Mr. Pen showed a most praiseworthy regularity in performing one part of the law-student's course of duty, and eating his dinners in Hall. 1856 H. Mayhew Gt. World of London i. 72 Lawyerlings ‘qualify’ for the bar by eating so many dinners. 1861 Lever One of Them 159 He had eaten his terms in Gray's Inn. [1867 Cassell's Mag. I. 287/2 These dinners he must eat in hall in his own person.] 1879 Chamber's Jrnl. 23 Aug. 539/2 No student shall be called to the Bar until he has eaten a certain number of dinners at his Inn. 1929 A. Waugh Three Score & Ten 71 The eating of dinners in the Temple, and the attendance of lectures. |
† b. to eat the air: to be ‘fed upon promises’, tantalized. Obs.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. iii. 28 Who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the ayre, on promise of Supply. |
c. to eat one's words: to retract in a humiliating manner. See also humble pie.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxii. 12 God eateth not his word when he hath once spoken. a 1618 Raleigh Rem. (1644) 73 Nay wee'le make you confesse that you were deceived in your projects, and eat your own words. 1679 Hist. Jetzer 35 He..began to boggle, and would fain have eaten his words. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. iv. i, Ye lied auld roudes,—and, in faith, had best Eat in your words. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) vii. xli, Unguarded words, which, as soon as you have uttered them, you would die to eat. 1837 Sir F. Palgrave Merch. & Friar (1844) Ded. 7 Quoting one's own books is next worst to eating one's own words. |
d. † to eat iron, a sword: to be stabbed (obs.). to eat stick: a mod. orientalism for ‘to be beaten’.
| 15.. Hickscorner in Hazl. Dodsley I. 168 The whoreson shall eat him [i.e. the dagger], as far as he shall wade. 1594 Contention betw. Lancaster & York i. (1843) 63 Ile make thee eate yron like an Astridge. 1862 W. M. Thomson Land & Bk. 319, I frequently hear them say of one who has been bastinadoed on the soles of his feet, that he has eaten fifty or five hundred sticks. 1865 Spectator 4 Feb. 122 The uncivilized freedom in which they could do as they liked, ‘eating stick’ included. |
e. In certain Biblical Hebraisms; to eat the fruit of one's own doings: to receive the reward of one's actions; to eat the good of the land, etc.
| 1611 Bible Prov. xiii. 2 A man shall eate good by the fruit of his mouth. ― Isa. iii. 10 They shall eate the fruit of their doings. |
f. to eat earth: a colonial expression for ‘to possess oneself of land’; cf. earth-hunger.
| 1882 Times 8 Apr. 9/5 A man [in Australia] can eat as much earth as he likes for 5s. to 10s. a square mile. |
g. to eat dirt: see dirt n. 6 c.
h. to eat one's hat: see hat n. 5 c.
3. a. intr. To consume food, take a meal.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter xxi[i]. 26 Eatað ðearfan and bið ᵹefylled. c 1000 Ags. Ps. lxxvii[i]. 29 Swiðe ætan and sade wurdan. c 1175 Cott. Hom. 223 [Hio] æat and ȝiaf hire were, and he æt. c 1205 Lay. 13456 For alle heo sculden aeten [1275 heote] ther. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1779 Ðor-on he eten bliðe and glað. c 1325 Coer de L. 3497 Whenne they hadde eeten, the cloth was folde. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxi. 27 Þe pore sall ete & þai sall be fild. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 93 Weþer het ȝe or drynk..do all þingis in þe name of our Lord. 1483 Cath. Angl. 118 To Ete, epulari. 1526 Tindale Acts xi. 3 Thou wentest in unto men uncircumcised and atest with them. 1563 Foxe A. & M. (1684) III. 905 Now we cannot eat, unless we gnaw with our Teeth. a 1678 Marvell Wks. III. 457 He had not eat since the day before at noon. 1687 Shadwell Juvenal 23 He does forget..his Friends Face, with whom last Night he Eat. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) IV. 46 They eat and sleep at proper intervals like all other quadrupedes. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 74 There should be temperance..in eating. |
b. to eat well: to have a good appetite; also, to keep a good table, be an epicure. So also † to eat ill: to be badly fed.
| 1677 Earl of Orrery Art of War 16 The Peasant..eats and lodges worse than the Citizen. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 148 ¶9 Who is a great Admirer of the French Cookery, and (as the Phrase is) eats well. |
c. Const. † on, upon (a kind of food). Cf. to dine on, feed on; also 1 e. Also const. from, off, † in (gold, china, etc.).
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 84 Have we eaten on the insane Root, That takes the Reason Prisoner? 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 361 [He] did eat upon Cakes made with meal and hony. 1625 Purchas Pilgrimes ii. 1474 Hee alwayes eates in priuate among his women vpon great varietie of excellent dishes. 1642 C'tess Sussex in 7th Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS. (1879), I am loth..to eat in pewter yet, but truly I have put up most of my plate. 1735 Pope Ep. Lady 82 Yet on plain pudding deign'd at home to eat. |
d. to eat out of another's hand: to be completely submissive to a person, to be under another person's control.
| 1915 Conrad Victory ii. vii. 139 He's like that—sometimes that familiar you might think he would eat out of your hand, and at others he would snub you sharper than a devil. 1921 H. S. Walpole Young Enchanted ii. v. 185, I won a glorious victory and Victoria has eaten out of my hand ever since. 1957 J. Masters Far, far the Mountain Peak xxiii. 236 This reconnaissance would have him eating out of his hand before it was done. 1968 M. Carroll Dead Trouble iii. 53 Shaun won't turn me out now. I've got him eating out of my hand. |
4. quasi-trans. uses of 3. a. with obj. followed by adj. or prep.: To affect in a certain way by eating: e.g. to eat oneself sick, into a sickness; to eat (a person) out of house and home (i.e. to ruin him by eating up his resources); of animals: to eat the ground bare.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 4574 In þat medu sa lang þai war þat etten þai had it erthe bare. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. i. 80 All I haue, he hath eaten me out of house and home. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 53 John's family was like to be eat out of house and home. 1807 A. M. Porter Hungar. Bro. v, You would not deny me my dinner, because I might eat myself into an apoplexy. 1832 H. Martineau Life in Wilds iv. 54 They would soon eat us out of house and home. |
b. to eat its head off: said of an animal that costs more for food than it will sell for.
| 1736 Byrom Jrnl. & Lit. Rem. (1856) II. i. 35 The eating his head off means that he would eat as much hay and corn as he was worth. 1860 Trollope Framley P. xiv. 277 A gentleman..does not like to leave him [a good horse] eating his head off. 1877 E. Peacock N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Cattle which have been bought at a loss are said to eat their heads off. |
c. to eat one's fill: to eat until satisfied.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 53 Þe tadde..neure ne mei itimien to eten hire fulle. a 1300 Cursor M. 12947 Bidd þir stanes be bred to will, And siþen mai þou ete þi fill. 1611 Bible Lev. xxv. 19 Ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safetie. 1737 Pope Hor. Epist. ii. ii. 323 You've play'd, and lov'd, and eat, and drunk, your fill. |
5. intr. with pass. force (chiefly with adj. or adv.): To have a certain consistence of flavour when eaten.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well i. i. 175 Like one of our French wither'd peares..it eates drily. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 36 Being dressed they eat like Barbles. 1682 J. Collins Making Salt Eng. 6 A Chine of this Beef..Eat with a savour like Marrow. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xvi. (1857) 96 If the cakes at tea eat short and crisp. |
6. To cause to be eaten. † a. (See quot.)
| 1784 Twamley Dairying 71 Cheese..that will spend well, or according to the common Phrase, will eat Bread well. |
b. To have (a crop, etc.) eaten; to give up (to animals) to be eaten. Const. with.
| 1601 Weever Mirr. Mart. F iij, Their dead with dogs Hircanians do eate. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 218 A custom of eating his hay, sometimes, with sheep, close to the ground. 1868 Perthshire Jrnl. 18 June, The pasture..he intended to eat with sheep. |
¶ 7. U.S. slang. To provide with food.
| 1837 Crockett Almanac 17 Well, Capting, do you ate us, or do we ate ourselves? 1842 Spirit of Times (Philad.) 4 Mar. (Th.), [The Bay State Democrat says that Mr. Dickens] has declined the invitation of the Philadelphians to eat him. 1855 M. Thomson Doesticks vii. 53, I resolved..to quit the premises of the Emerald Islander who agreed to ‘lodge and eat’ us. a 1860 Pickings fr. Picayune 47 (Bartlett), I was told you'd give us two dollars a day and eat us. 1889 Farmer Americanisms s.v., A steamer is alleged to be able to eat 400 passengers and sleep about half that number. 1928 S. V. Benét John Brown's Body 367 You ought to be et. We'll eat you up to the house when it's mealin' time. |
II. To destroy by devouring.
8. a. trans. To devour, consume (as a beast of prey); to prey upon; to feed destructively upon (crops, vegetation); transf. to ravage, devastate. lit. and fig.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. John x. 10 Ðeaf ne cymes buta þæt te ᵹestele & eteð [V. mactet] & losað. a 1300 E.E. Psalter (Mätz.), Þei ete [V. comederunt] Jacob, ilka lim, And unroned þe stede of him. a 1300 Cursor M. 22862 Men..Wit hundes eten þe mast parti. a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxi. 21 Saf me þat þe deuel ete me noght. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, i. ii. 65 Or Earth gape open wide, and eate him quicke. 1611 Bible Ex. x. 12 That they may..eate every herbe of the land. 1730 Pope Ep. Bathurst 196 The gaunt mastiff..Affrights the beggar whom he longs to eat. 1863 Kingsley Water-bab. 8 Monsters who were in the habit of eating children. Mod. He went to Africa, and got eaten by a lion. |
† b. To absorb (time) wastefully. Obs.
| 1598 Marston Pigmal. iii. 147 His ruffe did eate more time in neatest setting Then Woodstocks worke in painfull perfecting. |
c. to eat one's (own) heart: to suffer from silent grief or vexation. Also in Biblical phrase, to eat one's own flesh: said of an indolent person.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. i. ii. 6 He could not rest; but did his stout heart eat. 1611 Bible Eccles. iv. 5 The foole foldeth his hands together, and eateth his owne flesh. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. cviii. 3, I will not eat my heart alone. 1879 Farrar St. Paul I. 333 Eating away their own hearts in the consciousness of an ineffectual protest. |
d. Colloq. phr. he won't eat you, and varr.: he (we, they) will not injure or harm (the person addressed): an exhortation not to be alarmed.
| 1738 Swift Polite Conv. ii. 126 Why, we won't eat you, Sir John. 1848 Trollope Kellys & O'Kellys III. vii. 161 Why, man alive, the ogre can't eat you! 1904 A. Bennett Great Man xxiv. 261 Don't be afraid. She won't eat you. 1949 F. Swinnerton Doctor's Wife comes to Stay 96 Don't be afraid. We shan't eat her, much as we should like to. You'll have her safe home again, with plenty dollars and the hearts of all our people over there. 1965 J. Symons Belting Inheritance ii. 23 You don't want to let Mamma worry you. She won't eat you, though she may look as if she will. |
e. To disturb, vex. Also intr. in to eat at. (Cf. bite v. 13 b.) orig. U.S.
| 1893 S. Crane Maggie (1896) 90 ‘Well,’ he growled, ‘what's eatin' yehs?’ 1904 W. H. Smith Promoters xvi. 238 What's eatin' 'em? Are they trying to hog the whole game? 1910 C. E. Mulford H. Cassidy xi. 74 ‘What's eating him, anyhow?’ ‘I don't know. I never saw him act that way before.’ 1929 S. Anderson in Mercury Story Bk. 235 There was something else eating at me. 1934 R. Stout Fer-de-Lance xi. 158 You can answer my simple question without running a temperature. Was that what was eating you? 1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart ii. iii. 232 ‘Now, what's eating him?’ said Mr. Bursley. 1957 I. Cross God Boy (1958) xv. 118 ‘What's eating you?’ asked Joe. ‘Nothing,’ I said. |
9. trans. Of small animals: To gnaw, pierce, wear away by gnawing.
| 1611 Bible Acts xii. 23 Hee was eaten of wormes and gave up the ghost. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §61 note, It is not uncommon for the timber of ships to be eat by the worm under the copper sheathing. c 1822 Beddoes Alfarabi Poems 137 Many a wrinkled sun Ate to the core by worms. |
10. transf. a. Of slow and gradual action, as of frost, rust, cancerous or similar disease, chemical corrosives, the waves, etc. Const. into (the result).
| 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. iii. ix. (Arb.) 177 It is eaten & indented with two goulfes. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 100 The Rose though a lyttle it be eaten with the canker. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 12 The Dreadnought's Rudder-Irons being..so eaten, as not to be fit for her being adventured to Sea again with them. 1796 Coleridge Destiny of Nat. Wks. I. 199 His limbs The silent frost had eat, scathing like fire. 1819 J. Hodgson in J. Raine Mem. (1857) I. 265 The cliffs chalky and stratified, like those of Marsden, eaten into caves. |
b. absol.
| 1610 Markham Masterp. ii. clxxiii. 484 Arsnick..bindeth, eateth, and fretteth, being a very strong corrosiue. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 242 Being washed three or four times, it Bites or Eats not, but dries quickly. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. 520 To eat as rust doth, rodere. To eat as a canker doth, corrodere. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. vii. (1865) 280 His disease was a scrofula, which appeared to have eaten all over him. |
† c. fig. Of passions, grief, etc.: To ‘devour’, torment. Cf. eat up 18. Obs.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John ii. 17 Þines huses anda me et [c 1160 Hatton ett]. a 1225 St. Marher. 17 For onde that et ever ant aa ure heorte. a 1300 Cursor M. 23280 Enst and hete, þat iþenli þair hertes ete. |
11. To make (a hole, a passage) by fretting or corrosion. With cognate obj. to eat one's (its) way. lit. and fig.
| 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 843 The slow creeping Evil eats his way, Consumes the parching Limbs, and makes the Life his Prey. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. V. 138 Something like a figure eaten into the barril. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxvi. 344 The long canal which the running waters have eaten into the otherwise unchanged ice. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 138 Little water-courses may be eaten out of solid rock by a running stream. |
12. intr. To make a way by gnawing or corrosion; lit. and fig. Const. into, through.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. iii. 136 How one man eates into anothers pride. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 189 The canker..eats through the cheek. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 674 Searching Frosts have eaten thro' the Skin. 1780 Cowper Table Talk 8 Strange doctrine this! that..eats into his [the warrior's] bloody sword like rust. 1837 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (ed. 2) III. xxii. 365 Has not the desire of wealth so eaten into our hearts? 1861 Bright India, Sp. 19 Mar. (1876) 61 Anticipation..more likely to eat into the heart of any man. |
13. Naut. trans. and intr. (See quots.)
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Sourdre au vent, to hold a good wind; to claw or eat to windward. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Eating the wind out of a vessel, applies to very keen seamanship, by which the vessel..steals to windward of her opponent. |
III. Combined with adverbs. (trans. unless marked.)
14. eat away. To remove, destroy by gradual erosion or corrosion. lit. and fig.
| 1538 Starkey England ii. 46 They be as hyt were etyn away. 1815 Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 147 The river..frequently eats away its banks. 1853 Phillips Rivers Yorksh. i. 8 Carbonic acid eats away the limestone. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 286 The sun still eats away the shadow inch by inch. |
15. eat in. † a. To take into the mouth and eat; fig. to consider, ‘inwardly digest’. Also, to consume, waste away (obs.). b. To ‘bite in’ with acid, etch.
| c 1340 Cursor M. App. ii. 20527 Þe appel of a tre that adam toke & ete it Inne. 1603 Florio Montaigne (1632) 133 That their very skin, and quicke flesh is eaten in and consumed to the bones. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 125 What I have said, I'le neither lesse nor more, Nowe eate it in. |
16. a. eat off. To take off or remove by eating.
| 1640 Fuller Joseph's Coat viii. (1867) 182 Some thieves have eat off their irons..with mercury water. |
b. To clear off (a crop) by feeding it to cattle: said also of the cattle. Also intr. (for pass.) of a crop.
| 1733 W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 28 One of our best Farmers..eat off his Turneps early, and chalked his Ground well. 1764 Museum Rust. II. xxv. 79 We eat it [sc. coleseed] off with sheep..to make them fit for the butcher. 1841 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. II. i. 126 Nitrate of soda may be sown..on pasture that does not eat off regularly. 1921 W. E. Heitland Agricola 266 Stock must be kept on the farm, partly to eat off your own fodder-crops. |
17. eat out. a. = to bite out.
| 1858 Trollope Dr. Thorne I. 267, I suppose I ought to eat my tongue out, before I should say such a thing. |
b. To exhaust eatables or pasture in (a place).
| 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. VI. xv. xi. 71 But, in the mean while, he is eating-out these Bohemian vicinages. 1887 Pall Mall G. 30 Mar. 6/1 Wyoming is a natural grazing country..and to suppose that it can be ‘eaten out’ in ten years or a generation is to suppose an impossibility. |
c. To destroy as a parasite or a corrosive. Also fig., esp. in phrases with heart.
| 1616 [see 18 b]. a 1656 Bp. Hall Breath. Devout Soul (1851) 165 Yet, when we have all done, time eats us out at the last. 1656 W. Dugard Gate Lat. Unl. ¶103. 33 Yvie clambering over trees, eateth them out. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 74 A little of the said oyl..presently eats out the Colour. 1677 A. Yarranton Engl. Improv. 146 The cheapness of these Threds will eat out the very Spinning in most parts of England. 1886 G. T. Stokes Ireland of Celtic Ch. xi. 212 Image worship..which had largely eaten out the heart of religion among them. 1890 [see heart n. 47]. 1890 Review of Reviews II. 323/1 General Boulanger is not eating out his heart in vain regrets. 1919 M. K. Bradby Psychoanalysis 70 Commonsense says that it is better..‘to let off steam’ than to ‘eat your heart out’. |
d. To encroach upon (space, formerly also time) belonging to something else.
| a 1716 South Serm. (1717) V. 67 No..Business of State ate out his times of Attendance in the Church. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. iv. I. 197 A certain handsome room on the ground floor, eating out a back-yard. |
e. Mining. (See quot.)
| 1851 Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh. 25 Eat out, this expression is applied when a level coal drift is turned to the dip, in order to take advantage of (or ‘eat out’) a rise hitch. |
f. intr. To take a meal elsewhere than at one's residence.
| 1933 Maclean's Mag. 1 Aug. 35/1 They had planned to ‘eat out’, but presently Norma's chances of being ‘discovered’ in some smart café became completely nil. 1945 ‘L. Lewis’ Birthday Murder (1951) iv. 47 Why don't we eat out tonight?. 1954 R. Macaulay Let. 8 July (1962) 159 Women..stay at home while the men eat out in cafés and restaurants. |
18. eat up. a. To consume completely, eat without leaving any; to devour greedily. Also fig.
| 1535 Coverdale Bel 22 Ate vp soch thinges as were vpon y⊇ altare. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 27 By this meanes rich men eate vp poore men, as beasts eate vp grasse. 1816 Jane Austen Emma ii, The wedding-cake was all ate up. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 1472 Monsieur Leonci Miranda ate her up with eye-devouring. |
b. To devastate, consume all the food in (a country); to consume all (a person's) provisions or resources; to ruin (a person) for one's own benefit. Also (in mod. use) of nations: To absorb, annex rapaciously (neighbouring territories).
| 1616 Hieron Wks. I. 589 Goe not from the church, to eate out & to eate vp one another in the market, by fraud & cruelty. 1715 Burnet Own Times (1823) I. 413 He set as many soldiers upon him, as should eat him up in a night. 1721 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 158 The Scots were sent home, after having eaten up two counties. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. vii. 146 Others..would not fail to make themselves greater or stronger by eating up their neighbours. 1879 Froude Cæsar v. 42 On they swept eating up the country. 1884 Graphic 4 Oct. 342/2 The Boers..will gradually ‘eat-up’ all the surrounding territories, as they are now ‘eating-up’ Zululand. |
c. fig. To absorb wastefully; to have a destructive effect upon; to consume (time, money, etc.).
| 1680 Allen Peace & Unity Pref. 54 Hath eaten up the comfort of love in a great measure. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 6 ¶4 The Affectation of being Gay and in Fashion, has very near eaten up our good Sense and our Religion. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. (1869) II. v. ii. 416 Whose salaries may eat up the greater part of the produce of the tax. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xxxv, The sun had so much power..that it eat up the wind. 1856 C. M. Yonge Daisy Chain i. xviii. (1879) 179, I got a bit of Sophocles that was so horridly hard, it ate up all my time. |
d. To absorb, assimilate the ideas of (a writer).
| 1561 J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 138 We say in Dutch, He hath eaten Galen or Priscian quyte vp, that is to say, he hath learned them by hart. 1865 Masson Rec. Brit. Philos. 281 Kant ate up all Hume, and redigested him. |
e. Of passions: To ‘consume’, absorb (a person). Of diseases, troubles, etc.: To wear out the life of (a person). Chiefly in pass.; const. with (pride, selfishness, etc.; a disease, debts, etc.).
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iii. 391, I see, you are eaten vp with Passion. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 494 ¶1 The saint was..generally eaten up with spleen and melancholy. 1751 Jortin Serm. (1771) I. vi. 109 Nehemiah found the people..eaten up with debts. 1799 in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1845) III. 316 The garrison is..eat up with the scurvy. 1813 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. v. 15 He is eat up with pride. |
† f. To elide or slur over (syllables) in pronunciation. Obs. rare. [So Fr. manger.]
| 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 57 Sa is the hinmest lang syllabe the hinmest fute, suppose there be vther short syllabis behind it, quhilkis are eatin vp in the pronounceing, and na wayis comptit as fete. |
g. fig. To traverse (a distance, ground) rapidly.
| 1898 H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 111 If I don't put my spurs into him an' make him eat up the groun'. 1905 R. T. Sloss Bk. Automobile 179 One of the keenest pleasures in possessing a car is being able to annihilate a hill or ‘eat it up’. 1919 Wodehouse Damsel in Distress x, Ten minutes in the gray car ate up the distance between the links and George's cottage. |
IV. The verb-stem in comb. with obj.: eat-all, a glutton; † eat-flesh, transl. L. sarcophagus, Gr. σαρκοϕάγος the name of a kind of stone which had the property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it (see sarcophagus).
| 1598 Florio, Pamphago, the name of a dogge, as one would saie a rauener, an eate-all. 1884 C. Power in Gentl. Mag. Feb. 121 Idle people in the community–do nothings and eat-alls. 1632 Sherwood, An eate-flesh, sarcophago. |
▸ colloq.to eat like a bird: to eat very little; to pick at one's food.
| 1856 Godey's Lady's Bk. July 44/2 Do you think I grudge the miserable trifle she consumes—she eats like a bird? 1890 L. Hearn tr. ‘A. France’ Crime of Sylvestre Bonard 191 At her age one does not know anything, one does not care about anything in particular, one eats like a bird. 1939 New Yorker 15 Apr. 38/3 Wasn't you hungry? Why, you eat like a bird. 1991 R. R. McCammon Boy's Life iv. v. 399 Dad, who had been eating like a bird before we came to the Lady's, ate two whopping pieces of roulage and washed them down with two cups of hot black chicory coffee. |
▸ trans. coarse slang (orig. U.S.). to eat shit. a. Also occas. to eat a person's shit (also crap). To submit to degradation or humiliation, to be servile or sycophantic. Also (in imper.) used as a derisive retort or insult. Cf. dirt n. 6c.
| 1930 T. J. Farrell Grandeur 215 ‘They don't eat nobody's crap,’ Weary said challengingly. 1955 M. Puzo Dark Arena 266 He'd eaten shit all week. 1961 L. McMurtry Horseman, pass By 109 ‘Eat shit,’ he said. 1993 Harper's Mag. Sept. 21/2, Academics like to eat shit, and in a pinch they don't care whose shit they eat. 1997 Independent 28 Nov. 12 Los Angeles is full of big men who've lost their balls, because in order to make the money, to put it bluntly, they've had to eat shit as well. |
b. To be despicable, contemptible, or worthless; = suck v. 15f.
| 1942 in S. E. Morison Hist. U.S. Naval Operation World War II (1949) V. 193 GI: ‘Tojo eat s—!’. 1971 T. Mayer Weary Falcon 156 This fucking operation eats shit... It sucks. 1984 Playboy Nov. 178/3 Two players responded with zeal. ‘Rice eats shit!’ somebody hollered. 1988 Nation (Nexis) 16 July 69 The traditional surrealist view that Modern Life Eats Shit. 1998 W. C. Harris Delirium of Brave 152 Kids hanging out of the windows, honking horns and..yelling things like..‘High School eats shit’. |
▪ II. eat, n.
Forms: 1–3 æt, 2–4 ete, (2 hete), 3 at, 4 ethe, 7 eat.
[Com. Teut.: OE. æt = OFris. êt, OS. ât, OHG. âz, ON. át:—OTeut. *æ̂to-m, f. ablaut-stem of *etan to eat. In later use perh. the vb. stem used subst.]
1. That which is eaten, food. Now freq., esp. in pl. (colloq.).
| a 1000 Guthlac 708 (Gr.) Oft he him æte heold. c 1000 ælfric On O.T. in Sweet Ags. Reader 60 Moyses..ætes ne gimde on eallum ðam fyrste. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 109 On monie wisen mon mei wurchen elmessan, on ete and on wete. c 1200 Ormin 11640 Adam..Biswikenn wass þurrh æte. 1340 Ayenb. 248 Vor be to moche drinke and ethe sterfþ moche volk. 1609 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady ii. 70 Thou art cold of constitution, thy eat unhealthful. 1782 F. Burney Diary 26 Oct. (1842) II. 158, I was too much tired to choose appearing at dinner, and therefore eat my eat upstairs. 1889 Kansas Times & Star 7 May, A majority..adjourned to the Coates House for ‘eats’ and refreshment. 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. ix. 213 How shall I take money when I make so easy my eats and smokes? 1912 W. Owen Let. 23 Apr. (1967) 130, I suppose I must thank you for the eats too. 1918 ‘Ian Hay’ Last Million p. xiii, There is no ice-water, no ice-cream, no soda-fountains, no pie. It is hard to get the old familiar eats in our restaurants. 1955 J. P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1962) xxi. 214 On the tables were eats the like of which I'm sure have never been seen on this isle. |
2. The action of eating; a meal.
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. lvi i[ix]. 15 (Gr.) Hi to æte ut ᵹewitað. a 1200 Moral Ode 258 in Cott. Hom. 175 Þo þe sungede muchel a drunke and an ete. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 63 Þe lichames festing is wiðtiging of estmetes..and untimliche etes. 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & Widows III. liv. 269 What was he to do ‘between the eats’? 1904 Westm. Gaz. 20 May 10/1 One Tennessee innkeeper described his establishment as..25 cents a sleep, 25 cents an eat. 1951 J. Frame Lagoon 60 Goodbye and thank you for the little eat. |
▪ III. eat
Sc. variant of oat.