Eat \Eat\ ([=e]t), v. t. [imp. Ate ([=a]t; 277), Obsolescent &
Colloq. Eat ([e^]t); p. p. Eaten ([=e]t"'n), Obs. or
Colloq. Eat ([e^]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. ["a]ta, Dan. [ae]de, Goth. itan, Ir.
& Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. [root]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.
They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. --Ps.
cvi. 28.
The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.
--Gen. xli.
20.
The lion had not eaten the carcass. --1 Kings
xiii. 28.
With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the
junkets eat. --Milton.
The island princes overbold Have eat our substance.
--Tennyson.
His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
--Thackeray.
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.
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.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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