eat

eat [ it ] (past tense ate [ eıt ] ; past participle eat|en [ `itn ] ) verb intransitive or transitive ***

to put food into your mouth and swallow it:

We sat on the grass and ate our sandwiches.

Don't talk while you're eating.

I've eaten too much.

Finish your lunch you've hardly eaten anything.

a. to eat a particular type or amount of food:

Do you eat meat/fish/eggs?

It's hard to persuade my family to eat healthy foods.

eat well/healthily/sensibly (=eat food that is good for you): Many people who live alone don't eat well.

eating habits/patterns (=what someone eats, and when they eat): It will take time to change your children's eating habits.

b. to have a meal:

We don't eat breakfast together, except on weekends.

Beth ate her evening meal in the hotel.

Are you ready to eat?

eat at: We ate at a small Chinese restaurant several blocks away.

something to eat (=food): Where can we get something to eat?

a bite to eat (=a quick meal): Do you want to grab a bite to eat before we go?

eat someone alive

1. ) eat someone alive/for breakfast/lunch to defeat or deal with someone easily

2. ) if insects eat you alive, they keep biting you:

We were being eaten alive by mosquitos.

eat like a bird

to eat very little

eat like a horse INFORMAL

to eat a lot

eat someone out of house and home HUMOROUS

to eat too much of someone's food when you are a guest in their house

eat your heart out HUMOROUS

used for saying that you are doing something much better than a famous person does it

eat your words INFORMAL

to admit that you were wrong about something

have someone eating out of your hand

to make someone like or admire you so much that they agree with everything that you say

what's eating someone? SPOKEN

used for asking why someone is annoyed or unhappy

=> CROW1

,eat a`way phrasal verb transitive

eat away or eat into to gradually destroy something:

Within a few years inflation had eaten away all the economic gains.

,eat a`way at phrasal verb transitive

to make someone feel more and more unhappy or worried:

You could see that jealousy was eating away at her.

,eat `in phrasal verb intransitive

to have a meal at home instead of in a restaurant

─ opposite EAT OUT

`eat ,into phrasal verb transitive eat into something

1. ) if an activity or cost eats into your time or money, it uses more of it than you intended

2. ) same as EAT AWAY:

The river had eaten into the bank, and part of it had collapsed.

,eat `out phrasal verb intransitive

to have a meal in a restaurant instead of at home

─ opposite EAT IN

,eat `up phrasal verb

1. ) intransitive or transitive MAINLY SPOKEN to eat all of something:

Come on, eat up your broccoli.

Eat up, and we'll go for a walk.

2. ) transitive to use large amounts of your available time or money:

Having children eats up a lot of a family's income.

3. ) transitive eat up something to travel a particular distance easily and steadily:

They drove on, eating up the distance between themselves and home.

be eaten up by/with something

to feel a negative emotion so strongly that it is difficult to think about anything else:

Paula was eaten up by guilt for days.

eat it up INFORMAL

to like something so much that you want to hear or see more:

The press argued over the book, and the public was eating it up.