eat
verb (used with object)
to take into the mouth and swallow for nourishment; chew and swallow (food).
eat
American
[eet]
/ it /
verb (used with object)
-
eats,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ate,
past
-
eat,
past (Archaic)
-
eaten,
past participle
-
eating
present participle
-
to take into the mouth and swallow for nourishment; chew and swallow (food).
-
to consume by or as if by devouring gradually; wear away; corrode.
The patient was eaten by disease and pain.
-
to make (a hole, passage, etc.), as by gnawing or corrosion.
-
to ravage or devastate.
a forest eaten by fire.
-
to use up, especially wastefully; consume (often followed byup ).
Unexpected expenses have been eating up their savings.
-
to absorb or pay for.
The builder had to eat the cost of the repairs.
-
Slang: Vulgar. to perform cunnilingus or fellatio on.
verb (used without object)
-
eats,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ate,
past
-
eat,
past (Archaic)
-
eaten,
past participle
-
eating
present participle
-
to consume food; take a meal.
We'll eat at six o'clock.
-
to make a way, as by gnawing or corrosion.
Acid ate through the linoleum.
noun
verb phrase
-
eat away / into to destroy gradually, as by erosion.
For eons, the pounding waves ate away at the shoreline.
-
eat up
-
to consume wholly.
-
to show enthusiasm for; take pleasure in.
The audience ate up everything he said.
-
to believe without question.
-
-
eat out to have a meal at a restaurant rather than at home.
idioms
-
be eating someone, to worry, annoy, or bother.
Something seems to be eating him—he's been wearing a frown all day.
-
eat one's words. word.
-
eat one's heart out. heart.
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eat someone's lunch, to thoroughly defeat, outdo, injure, etc.
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eat in, to eat or dine at home.
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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.
-
eat one's terms. term.
-
eat crow. crow.
-
eat the wind out of, to blanket (a sailing vessel sailing close-hauled) by sailing close on the weather side of.
-
eat humble pie. humble pie.
-
eat out of one's hand. hand.
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eat clean. clean.
-
eat high off the hog. hog.
eat
1
British
/ iːt /
verb
-
to take into the mouth and swallow (food, etc), esp after biting and chewing
-
(tr; often foll by away or up) to destroy as if by eating
the damp had eaten away the woodwork
-
(often foll by into) to use up or waste
taxes ate into his inheritance
-
to make (a hole, passage, etc) by eating or gnawing
rats ate through the floor
-
to take or have (a meal or meals)
we always eat at six
-
(tr) to include as part of one's diet
he doesn't eat fish
-
informal (tr) to cause to worry; make anxious
what's eating you?
-
slang (tr) to perform cunnilingus or fellatio upon
-
informal I will be greatly surprised if (something happens that proves me wrong)
-
to brood or pine with grief or longing
-
to take back something said; recant; retract
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to be entirely obedient to someone
-
to ruin someone, esp one's parent or one's host, by consuming all his food
EAT
2
British
abbreviation
eat
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
eatsimple
-
eatssimple
-
have eatenperfect
-
has eatenperfect
-
am eatingprogressive
-
are eatingprogressive
-
is eatingprogressive
-
have been eatingperfect progressive
-
has been eatingperfect progressive
Past
-
atesimple
-
eatsimple
-
had eatenperfect
-
was eatingprogressive
-
were eatingprogressive
-
had been eatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of eat
First recorded before 900; Middle English eten, Old English etan; cognate with German essen, Gothic itan, Latin edere, esse, Homeric Greek édein
Explanation
If you leave an antique flowerpot outside all winter, the snow and rain might eat the paint, making it look even older than it is. You probably know that eat means "to consume food," because you do that several times a day. But we also use the verb eat for other situations involving using something up or wearing it down. If your art project eats up all your art supplies, that means you don't have any left. Leaving your car lights on will eat through your battery. Something eating away at us is worrying us. Don't let money stress eat away at your happiness.
Vocabulary lists containing eat
3-letter words, List 1
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3-letter words, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It has been doing that through grazing cattle, which eat the vegetation, while in other areas land managers have used machines to cut and mulch the grass, gorse, bracken and heather.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
"We never actually starved, but sometimes we never had quite enough to eat."
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
“I’m very sensible. I’m not going out to eat or buying clothes. I really put all my spare money toward this.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Americans eat twice as much chicken today as they did in the 1970s, and fast-food places focusing specifically on chicken began swallowing truly staggering amounts of market share.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
It was the last time Jason had seen her eat.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Brinker EAT -3.72%decrease; red down pointing triangle International reported higher fiscal third-quarter profit as its Chili’s chain continued to draw customers seeking affordability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
She’s a co-owner of Urban Garden Brewing, D.C.’s first Black and Latina women-owned brewery, which released a collaboration beer, AllHomage, with D.C. clothing brand EAT.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 17, 2022
Since the beginning of pandemic, Pret has closed 39 shops in the UK, as well as 33 EAT outlets, which it also owns.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2021
To Brown’s chagrin, the EAT crowd seemed more receptive to this dream of Eden than to his unrepentant bovicide.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 23, 2019
Along the way, they’d pass a manhole cover on which someone had spray-painted DO NOT EAT THIS!
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
He comes across as a guy who eats the game for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Whenever he visits another office, he eats in the employee cafeteria.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Nvidia’s earnings call later this month could give Wall Street and investors “critically needed assurance on its go-forward role in vendor financing,” Arya said, which eats into its free cash flow.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Garrett’s quickness off the ball is “insane,” Young said, noting that Garrett eats up “three or four yards,” with his first step.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
A short silence falls over our table, broken only by the clang of forks against porcelain, the obnoxious slurping sounds Connor makes as he eats his chow mein.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
At first, he ate well and trained well only because she told him to.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Net income fell 9.4% to $6.37 billion as the decline of some equity investments ate into profits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Xu, whose mother died when he was a year old, recalled in a speech how he ate only sweet potato and steamed bread in his school years.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
Mohamed Al-Hamdani, a Democratic member of Montgomery County’s Board of Elections, which received similar inquiries, said they amounted to “witch hunts” that ate up staff time.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
They ate most of the meat, leaving a little for day meal, and sopped up the juices with hawkbit roots baked in the embers.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
According to DEFRA, it can only be spread on crops that cannot be eaten directly from the land, such as wheat, barley and oil seed rape.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The percentage of consumers eating alone has been steadily growing in the U.S., with 43% of restaurant meals eaten solo in the 12 months ended in June, according to market-research firm Circana.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Participants also completed four dietary recalls during the study describing what they had eaten during the previous 24 hours.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026
In late January, the couple’s clutch of two eggs was eaten by ravens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
This may have been the most delicious thing he had eaten in his entire life.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
"I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren't in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets."
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
He and Heyward would sit together, eating Chick-fil-A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Alongside counting calories or eating smaller portions, many people add exercise into the equation when trying to lose weight to help tip the balance.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Content creators have built massive audiences by filming seemingly mundane routines, from getting ready in the morning to eating lunch.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
Whatever had happened—it must be eating him up inside.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
