eat up

British  

verb

1. (also intr) to eat or consume entirely: often used as an exhortation to children

2. informal to listen to with enthusiasm or appreciation

   the audience ate up the speaker's every word

3. informal (often passive) to affect grossly

   she was eaten up by jealousy

4. informal to travel (a distance) quickly

   we just ate up the miles

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eat up Idioms  

1. 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.

2. Enjoy avidly, as in She simply eats up the publicity . [Late 1800s]

3. Believe unquestioningly, be gullible, as in He'll eat up whatever the broker tells him . [ Slang ; early 1900s]

4. Defeat completely, as in This new fighter just eats up every opponent . [ Slang ; c. 1830]

5. See eat out , def. 2.

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Example Sentences

These days, the game’s elite passers command contracts worth upward of $50 million annually and eat up giant chunks of the salary cap.

From The Wall Street Journal

The sales-account executive is paying rent for the first time and student loans, which together eat up $2,400 each month.

From The Wall Street Journal

Its extra ground clearance, improved approach and departure angles, and enhanced off-road hardware and software enabled this model to eat up miles and miles of single-track dirt roads with ease.

From MarketWatch

A lot of the hits and jabs that she was eating up?

From Washington Post

Those on the lowest incomes have been hardest hit by the soaring cost of living, because a greater proportion of their money is eaten up by vital household costs, such as energy and groceries.

From BBC

Related Words

• swallow