eat

v. t. [ imp. Ate Obsolescent & Colloq. Eat p. p. Eaten Obs. or Colloq. Eat (&ebreve_;t); p. pr. & vb. n. Eating. ] [ 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. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. √6. Cf. Etch, Fret to rub, Edible. ] 1. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. Ps. cvi. 28. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine. Gen. xli. 20. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lion had not eaten the carcass. 1 Kings xiii. 28. [ 1913 Webster ]

With stories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab the junkets eat. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The island princes overbold
Have eat our substance. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

To eat humble pie. See under Humble. --
To eat of (partitive use). “Eat of the bread that can not waste.” Keble. --
To eat one's words, to retract what one has said. (See the Citation under Blurt.) --
To eat out, to consume completely. “Eat out the heart and comfort of it.” Tillotson. --
To eat the wind out of a vessel (Naut.), to gain slowly to windward of her.

Syn. -- To consume; devour; gnaw; corrode. [ 1913 Webster ]