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Glite Dictionary
to eat their own

to eat their own

1 9.5
To turn against people in your own group
  • idiom
  • Literature
translation icon : comer a los de su propia comunidad
  • During the heated debate, the members began to eat their own, criticizing their fellow supporters for minor mistakes.

But what pisses what pissed me off about this is I hate it when I see the military eat their own.

Examples

  • American politics eat their own.

    Blog text (18)

  • I thought that Romney's team was just bullshitting externally, but it does now look like these guys really did eat their own dog food.

    Blog text (6)

  • Do sharks eat their own kind?

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Only because the RNC, and sadly others, decided to eat their own, keeping the issue in the news cycle longer than necessary.

    Blog text (5)

  • It is not only revolutions that eat their own.

    Blog text (17)

  • BS, it is conservatives eating their own, and the liberals know perfectly how to make it happen!

    Blog text (31)

  • It surprises me how much you guys and gals are eating their own on this blog.

    Blog text (25)

  • It was shameful to watch conservatives eat their own, especially in the way they attacked Gov. Perry.

    Blog text (33)

  • Had Bush and company not bought into Paulson's hysterics about the system "collapsing," the banks, in an effort to survive when faced with no bailouts, would have eaten their own and settled these issues amongst themselves.

    Blog text (16)

  • In times of crisis, it is not unusual for groups to eat their own, turning against their members in an attempt to survive.

Synonyms

to eat their young
vsto eat their own
  • Literature
1 9.9

To harm or betray people in your own group to help yourself

refers to betrayal within a group without stressing younger victims or ruthlessness
to eat its own
vsto eat their own
1 9.5

To betray or harm members of the same group, often during internal fighting

applies to any group harming members, not only formal organizations
to cut someone's throat
vsto eat their own
  • Offensive
8.4

To betray or hurt someone to get an advantage

is about harming group members from within rather than personal backstabbing

Antonyms

support
∞ 1.0

Help for a person or idea

to defend
∞ 1.3

To protect people and things from attack or harm

How Disloyal

to eat their own
  • Literature
1 9.5
to criticize
701 3.3

Surface Forms

eat their own infinitive
ate their own past
eaten their own past participle
eating their own present participle
eats their own third person singular

Morphology

eat + their + own

The verb 'eat' is used metaphorically here and 'their own' clearly marks members of the same group, so a learner who knows the words could infer a general sense of attacking or harming people from within one’s group. However, the precise nuance (criticize, betray, or otherwise harm) is a figurative extension rather than a fully compositional meaning, so the phrase is not completely predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Eat their own comes from the image of animals that, in times of danger or stress, will sometimes literally eat members of their own group. This strong picture of a group hurting itself is why the phrase means 'to betray, criticize, or harm people from within'.