eat
UK /iːt/ · US /it/ verb, noun
Forms eats eating ate et eaten etten eatest atest eateth
- verb (ambitransitive) To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it. “He's eating an apple.”
- verb (intransitive) To consume a meal. “What time do we eat this evening?”
- verb (copulative, intransitive) To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed. “I try to eat healthy these days.”
- verb (intransitive, ergative) To be ingested. “It's a soup that eats like a meal.”
- verb (intransitive) To be savored or enjoyed; to taste in a specified way. “It's an unattractive dish, but it eats pretty good.”
- verb (transitive, often with up) To destroy, consume, or use up. “This project is eating up all the money.”
- verb (transitive, programming, informal) To consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it.
- verb (transitive, informal, of a device) To damage, destroy, or fail to eject a removable part or an inserted object. “The VHS recorder just ate the tape and won't spit it out.”
- noun (colloquial) Something to be eaten; a meal; a food item.
Synonyms
consume swallow dine chow down feed one's face bother disturb worry eat out devour eat and leave no crumbs bang rock slap excel go hard kick kick ass rule shine feed eat on eat up use up deplete exhaust run through wipe out corrode rust
Etymology
From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti, from *h₁ed- (“to eat”).
Cognate with Scots ait (“to eat”), Yola ayth, eight (“to eat”), North Frisian iidj, iit, ää'e, ääre, ääse (“to eat”), Saterland Frisian iete, íete (“to eat”), West Frisian ite (“to eat”), Alemannic German asse, assu, essen, ässe, ässä (“to eat”), Bavarian eisn, essn, èssn (“to eat”), Cimbrian èssan, èzzan (“to eat”), Dutch and Low German eten (“to eat”), German essen (“to eat”), Luxembourgish iessen (“to eat”), Mòcheno èssn (“to eat”), Vilamovian aosa (“to eat”), Yiddish עסן (esn, “to eat”), Danish æde (“to eat”), Elfdalian jätå (“to eat”), Faroese eta (“to eat”), Icelandic eta, éta (“to eat”), Norwegian Bokmål ete (“to eat”), Norwegian Nynorsk eta, ete, åtå (“to eat”), Swedish äta (“to eat”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan, “to eat”).
From Middle English ete, ate, æte, from Old English ǣt (“food, eating”), from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ētą (“food, thing to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognate with West Frisian iten (“food”), Saterland Frisian Íeten (“food”), German Aas (“carrion”), Vilamovian aosa (“food”), Icelandic át (“eating; solid food”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To chew and swallow as food; to devour; --said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. "To eat grass as oxen." Dan. iv. 25.
- verb To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear.
- verb To take food; to feed; especially, to take solid, in distinction from liquid, food; to board.
- verb To taste or relish; as, it eats like tender beef.
Etymology [OE. eten, AS. etan; akin to OS. etan, OFries. eta, D. eten, OHG. ezzan, G. essen, Icel. eta, Sw. äta, Dan. æde, Goth. itan, Ir. & Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. ad. Etch, Fret to rub, Edible.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “eat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details