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.
-
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:
But smaller companies who need fresh financing to keep expanding that extra interest can eat up cash flow, force spending cuts, delay hiring or eventually make refinancing impossible.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
"Ultra-processed food triggers dopamine, the pleasure hormone, which promotes craving. Food companies work with scientists to find just the right amount of sugar, salt, and fat that make you want to eat more and more."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
“They’re primarily insectivorous here in the United States, and so they’re just going out to eat, and they’re performing this vital function for us,” Curtis said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
"During hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight. Their winter survival depends on accumulating ample fat reserves before entering the den," organisers wrote.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Sancho didn't have time to eat the cottage cheese.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
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
This is a lovely review, that describes food in a lovely, painterly way - but having read it twice, does any of this sound like food you'd want to, well, y'know, EAT?
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2016
Chili’s Grill & Bar operator Brinker International Inc. EAT 0.82 % blamed low oil prices for weak results in some states that rely heavily on the energy industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2015
EAT: If you’re in the shrinking middle class, your earnings after taxes might leave you barely able to do this.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2015
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
In response, Matthews said that when he was competing in an ultramarathon, he met a man who "only eats Huel".
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
“The flavor’s there. It eats right. It bites right. But see what I mean?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
The resemblance might have ended there, except Kennedy recently told an interviewer that he eats beef twice a day, generally grass-fed strip steak.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
The result suggests that elevated oxalate in the intestines may be driven less by the quantity of oxalate a person eats and more by a biological problem in how the gut processes it.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 13, 2026
There might be some kind of creature out there that eats magicians for dinner and lures them to its den through social media.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
We, the audience, are the final piece of the puzzle, the culpable players who not only ate up the original “To Catch a Predator,” but all the media and memes that spun off it.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
Once we started working together, I quickly learned that the pace and demands of her life pulled at nearly every domain, including how she ate.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
"We really went all out. Then we flew around in a circle, talked with the family, ate good food," Klopp said.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
From another: “A paper that ate three cold hands and got more honest each time.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
I took the bread and ate it, but it didn’t fill me.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
The discovery of burial sites like the one here has long eaten away at relations between the neighbors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
“Breakfast” typically consists of coffee and a protein bar eaten as she pulls out of the school drop-off line.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
Ants are eaten and sometimes even valued as a delicacy in several Asian, African and Latin American cultures.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
Those expectations may even shift a person's perception from hunger toward fullness before any food has actually been eaten.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026
He’d already eaten five eggs and a half dozen strips of bacon, and he was still working on a stack of pancakes tall enough to sit on.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
It’s a really great spot for burgers, fish and steaks, so we’ll just go there for a little snack, and I’ll be the only one eating, because everyone’s still full.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Demand for high-protein dairy products has surged globally, fueled by healthier eating habits, increased emphasis on fitness and weight loss drugs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
The eating pattern emphasizes green leafy vegetables; other vegetables; berries; nuts; whole grains; fish; beans; olive oil; and poultry, along with moderate wine consumption.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 1, 2026
Several social media users in the country have also expressed concerns about eating the game meat amid an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which has prompted authorities to impose measures to contain its spread.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
He was just sitting there, as big as you please, with a sandwich in one paw, and an apple in the other, eating away and looking straight at me.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
