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Glite Dictionary
to eat its own

to eat its own

1 9.5
To betray or harm members of the same group, often during internal fighting
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : traicionar a los propios
  • The damned thing sure as hell isn't going to stop short of eating its own "agents" either, a part of the process even now in the early stages of a rapid acceleration dead-ending much sooner than later in a massive reduction of homo domesticus' hyper-inflated "numbers."

Examples

  • The organization was criticized for allowing its policies to eat its own members, compromising their well-being.

  • And you see conservatives observing this with a sort of Glee because it's the left eating its own from their perspective.

  • When the committee decided to cut funding, many felt it was a case of the union eating its own.

  • In times of crisis, companies can sometimes eat their own employees to save costs.

Synonyms

to eat their own
vsto eat its own
  • Literature
1 9.5

To turn against people in your own group

focuses on harm done to protect the group during internal conflict
to eat their young
vsto eat its own
  • Literature
1 9.9

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

focuses on harming to protect the group rather than for personal gain

Antonyms

to support
∞ 1.0

Give help to a person or idea

How Self-Destructive

to eat its own
1 9.5
to exclude
338 3.0
attack
548 3.2
to criticize
701 3.3

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

eat + its + own

The phrase uses 'eat' metaphorically to mean consume or destroy and 'its own' clearly marks internal members, so a learner who knows the words could plausibly infer a sense of self‑destruction or internal harm. However, the metaphoric shift from literal eating to betraying/attacking group members is not fully predictable or literal, so prior exposure is helpful for the precise pragmatic meaning.

Etymology

Eat its own may come from the strong image of an animal group that, when hungry or scared, will begin to eat members of its own pack. So, the phrase now means 'to betray or harm members of your own group'.