to eat
- verb
- /it/
- There are chemicals in this air that'll eat right through your skin.
- eat away
- moth-eaten
They wake up fire breathing Dragons, eating nails and spitting blood.
- They wake up fire breathing Dragons, eating nails and spitting blood.
- We know that black holes eat things and grow.
- China is not going to eat the world, right.
- How much does it eat chew up on on jobs?
Examples
-
Unprecedented population growth rates eat up potential increases in per-capita wealth throughout the region.
Academic text (1992) -
The new factory will eat through our budget if we don't manage expenses carefully.
-
We know that black holes eat things and grow.
-
A bigger black hole can eat more of its surrounding galaxy.
Academic text (1996) -
Lives in the dirt and it's going to eat decaying matter.
-
The constant repairs on the old car are starting to eat into my savings.
-
Her excessive spending habits will eventually eat away at her financial stability.
Synonyms
Destroy something so nothing is left
To use up resources until none are left
To finish all of something so nothing is left
To use up all of a supply or resource
To destroy or use up things quickly, for example when fire burns a building
To use money, time, or energy for a purpose
To damage something slowly over time, for example a building or a person's confidence
Use up money or time quickly
Become slowly damaged by chemicals, for example when metal turns to rust
To eat something quickly and eagerly
Use up money or supplies quickly and wastefully
To use up almost all of something so little is left
Slowly wears away rock and soil by wind or water
To use up resources like time or data very quickly
To eat so much at someone's home that they have almost no food left
Antonyms
Idioms
- Offensive
Tell someone in a rude way to go away or warn they will be badly embarrassed
- Offensive
Avoid mixing your personal life with your work life because it causes problems
- Informal
To feel very jealous or sad because someone else has what you want
- Jargon
Use a company's own products to show they work and learn from them
- Informal
To beat someone in business by taking their customers and sales
- Informal
To finish a very large task by doing small easy steps
- NSFW
To say as a joke that you will kill yourself because you feel very frustrated
- Informal
To say you are very sure something will not happen and would do something silly if it did
- Offensive
To say you want to kill yourself to show you feel very desperate, often offensive
- Informal
To eat so much at someone's home that they have almost no food left
- Informal
To speak or sing into a microphone with strong confidence and energy to make the audience pay attention
- Informal
A chant people use to protest the rich and call for sharing wealth, often in a joking way
- Offensive
A joking phrase that shows old ideas about how men should act
Phrasal Verbs
- Informal
To damage something slowly over time, for example a building or a person's confidence
Slowly damages metal, rock and someone's confidence by chemicals or steady pressure
Compounds
How Damaging
Surface Forms
Etymology
Eat also took the simple idea of 'taking in' and became a way to say 'use up' or 'destroy slowly'. So we talk about a machine or project that 'eats' fuel or money because it quickly uses it up.