eat
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eat¹
- /iːt/ UK
- /it/ US
Rhymes with -iːt
Where it comes from
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”).
Cognates
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”).
verb eats · eating · ate · et · eat · eaten
- To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it. He's eating an apple.
- To consume a meal. What time do we eat this evening?
- To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed. I try to eat healthy these days.
- To be ingested. It's a soup that eats like a meal.
- To be savored or enjoyed; to taste in a specified way. It's an unattractive dish, but it eats pretty good.
- To destroy, consume, or use up. This project is eating up all the money.
- To consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it. A bigger problem, however, is that if you catch/eat an exception and do nothing with it, you are very likely introducing subtle bugs in your application that will be next to impossible to track down.
- 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.
- To consume money (or other instruments of value, such as a token) deposited or inserted by a user, while failing to either provide the intended product or service or return the payment. The video game in the corner just ate my quarter.
- To cause (someone) to worry. What's eating you?
- To take the loss in a transaction. I have to have him in court tomorrow, if he doesn't show up, I forfeit the bond and I have to eat the $300,000.
- To be injured or killed by (something such as a firearm or its projectile), especially in the mouth. I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and Eddie Mars' gang. I dodge bullets and eat saps.
- To corrode or erode. The acid rain ate away the statue. The strong acid eats through the metal.
- To perform oral sex (on a person or body part). Eat me!
- To do or perform well and stunningly; to consume a challenge successfully and stylishly; to rule, to slay. You ate that performance!
- To act well (in a role); to be intensely devoted (to a role). Most of the movie was pretty weak, but she ate her role, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.
- To annex.
eat²
- /iːt/ UK
- /it/ US
Rhymes with -iːt
Where it comes from
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”).
noun eats
- Something to be eaten; a meal; a food item. Eating a Picnic creates a flurry of wafer pieces, flying peanuts and chocolate crumbs. […] As well as being messy, Picnic happens to be a big eat – something of a consumption challenge in fact.
