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eat

UK/iːt/ US/it/ very common informal slang

verb

1.

hunt illegally

  • “people are poaching elephants for their ivory”
2.

eat a meal; take a meal

  • “We did not eat until 10 P.M. because there were so many phone calls”
  • “I didn”
3.

take in food; used of animals only

  • “This dog doesn”
  • “;”
Synonyms
4.

use up (resources or materials)

  • “this car consumes a lot of gas”
  • “We exhausted our savings”
  • “They run through 20 bottles of wine a week”
Synonyms
5.

worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way

  • “What”
Synonyms
6.

cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid

  • “The acid corroded the metal”
  • “The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink”
Synonyms

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • eat someone out of house and home

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Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.