eat up
(also intr) to eat or consume entirely: often used as an exhortation to children
informal to listen to with enthusiasm or appreciation: the audience ate up the speaker's every word
(often passive) informal to affect grossly: she was eaten up by jealousy
informal to travel (a distance) quickly: we just ate up the miles
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
How to use eat up in a sentence
And it is true that regulatory settlements continue to eat up cash that might otherwise have gone to employees.
At least by Chinese standards, moreover, transforming your pooch into a panda can eat up a lot of time and money.
China’s Dog-Dyeing Craze: Once Shunned, Pet Pooches Now Embraced | Melinda Liu | July 8, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd of course, the media-elite echo chamber will eat up what Teixeira has to say without even looking at The Swing Vote.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: How Ruy Teixeira Got it Wrong on ‘Swing Vote’ | Linda Killian | March 13, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe Republican electorate may eat up potshots at Obama for being weak, but I doubt the broader public is buying it.
Heading into 1948, Republicans were hungry to eat up the New Deal.
What of the infinite goodness of God in teaching the grub of the ichneumon-fly to eat up the cabbage caterpillar alive?
God and my Neighbour | Robert BlatchfordHuman desires would eat up the result of ten times the work we now accomplish.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice | Stephen LeacockWe fed them and turned them loose but the blamed fools hung around all day and eat up some sour beans I throwed out.
Cabin Fever | B. M. BowerHe promised to eat up in one hour all the figs and all the oranges and all the lemons in the King's orchards.
The Merrie Tales Of Jacques Tournebroche | Anatole FrancePoor Digby could not very well refuse; at the same time he did not see exactly why the bully should eat up his marmalade.
Digby Heathcote | W.H.G. Kingston
Other Idioms and Phrases with eat up
Consume completely, as in No television until you eat up your dinner, or This quarter's expenses have eaten up all my spare cash. The literal use (first example) dates from the early 1500s, the figurative from the early 1600s.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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