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Glite Dictionary
to eat out of house and home

to eat out of house and home

7.5
To eat so much at someone's home that they have almost no food left
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : comer hasta dejar la casa vacía
  • Visitors during the holidays tend to eat out of house and home—I can barely keep the pantry stocked.

Examples

  • If my roommates keep inviting friends over, they will eat out of house and home before the week is up.

  • His cousins always eat out of house and home when they come to stay for the summer.

  • Don't eat out of house and home!

  • My kids eat out of house and home every weekend.

  • Every time my friends come over, they eat out of house and home, leaving me with almost nothing to eat.

  • When family visits during the holidays, they tend to eat out of house and home, making it hard for me to keep groceries in stock.

  • His younger siblings always eat out of house and home whenever they stay with us for the weekend.

Synonyms

to eat
vsto eat out of house and home
564 6.6

Gradually use up money or fuel

is more intense, often using so much that almost nothing remains
to eat up
vsto eat out of house and home
  • Informal
23 3.1

Use up money or time quickly

is a prolonged heavy use that leaves almost nothing, often without intent

How Much

to eat out of house and home
  • Informal
7.5
to live off
77 3.9
to nibble
56 2.0

Surface Forms

eat out of house and home infinitive
ate out of house and home past
eaten out of house and home past participle
eating out of house and home present participle
eats out of house and home third person singular

Morphology

eat + out + of + house + and + home

The verb 'eat' and the phrase 'out of' + 'house and home' allow a learner to infer a basic literal meaning of consuming from someone's household, so a B1 learner who knows the parts could guess it involves eating a lot of someone's food. However, the fixed phrasing and the intensified, idiomatic sense 'to consume so much that almost nothing is left' (with 'house and home' serving as an idiomatic intensifier) are not fully predictable from the parts alone. Because the meaning is partly derivable but relies on an idiomatic intensifier and conventionalized structure, this is best classified as semi-transparent.

Etymology

The idiom eat out of house and home paints a picture of visitors who eat so much that they empty the cupboards and leave nothing in the house and home. So it means 'to use up almost all of someone's food or resources'.