eat

Verb

Synonyms: feed eat on consume eat up use up deplete exhaust run through wipe out corrode rust

WordNet 3.0

Verb (6)

take in solid food“She was eating a banana”“What did you eat for dinner last night?”
eat a meal; take a meal“We did not eat until 10 P.M. because there were so many phone calls”“I didn't eat yet, so I gladly accept your invitation”
take in food; used of animals only“This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat”“What do whales eat?”Synonyms: feed
worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way“What's eating you?”Synonyms: eat on
use up (resources or materials)“this car consumes a lot of gas”“We exhausted our savings”“They run through 20 bottles of wine a week”Synonyms: consume eat up use up deplete exhaust run through wipe out
cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid“The acid corroded the metal”“The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink”Synonyms: corrode rust

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

Eat \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. [aum]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. [1913 Webster]

They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead.— Ps. cvi. 28.[1913 Webster]

The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.— Gen. xli. 20.[1913 Webster]

The lion had not eaten the carcass.— 1 Kings xiii. 28.[1913 Webster]

With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the junkets eat.— Milton.[1913 Webster]

The island princes overbold Have eat our substance.— Tennyson.[1913 Webster]

His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.— Thackeray.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

Eat \Eat\, v. i.

1.To take food; to feed; especially, to take solid, in distinction from liquid, food; to board. [1913 Webster]

He did eat continually at the king's table.— 2 Sam. ix. 13.[1913 Webster]

2.To taste or relish; as, it eats like tender beef. [1913 Webster]

3.To make one's way slowly. [1913 Webster]

To eat, To eat in or To eat into, to make way by corrosion; to gnaw; to consume. "A sword laid by, which eats into itself." --Byron.

To eat to windward (Naut.), to keep the course when closehauled with but little steering; -- said of a vessel. [1913 Webster]

The Devil's Dictionary

EAT, v.i. To perform successively (and successfully) the functions of mastication, humectation, and deglutition. "I was in the drawing-room, enjoying my dinner," said Brillat- Savarin, beginning an anecdote. "What!" interrupted Rochebriant; "eating dinner in a drawing-room?" "I must beg you to observe, monsieur," explained the great gastronome, "that I did not say I was eating my dinner, but enjoying it. I had dined an hour before."