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. [aum]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.
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            They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. --Ps.
                                                  cvi. 28.
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            The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.
                                                  --Gen. xli.
                                                  20.
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            The lion had not eaten the carcass.   --1 Kings
                                                  xiii. 28.
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            With stories told of many a feat,
            How fairy Mab the junkets eat.        --Milton.
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            The island princes overbold
            Have eat our substance.               --Tennyson.
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            His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
                                                  --Thackeray.
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   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.
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   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.
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	Eat \Eat\, v. i.
   1. To take food; to feed; especially, to take solid, in
      distinction from liquid, food; to board.
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            He did eat continually at the king's table. --2 Sam.
                                                  ix. 13.
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   2. To taste or relish; as, it eats like tender beef.
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   3. To make one's way slowly.
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   To eat, To eat in or To eat into, to make way by
      corrosion; to gnaw; to consume. "A sword laid by, which
      eats into itself." --Byron.

   To eat to windward (Naut.), to keep the course when
      closehauled with but little steering; -- said of a vessel.
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	eat
    v 1: take in solid food; "She was eating a banana"; "What did
         you eat for dinner last night?"
    2: eat a meal; take a meal; "We did not eat until 10 P.M.
       because there were so many phone calls"; "I didn't eat yet,
       so I gladly accept your invitation"
    3: take in food; used of animals only; "This dog doesn't eat
       certain kinds of meat"; "What do whales eat?" [syn: feed,
       eat]
    4: worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way; "What's eating
       you?" [syn: eat, eat on]
    5: 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" [syn: consume, eat up, use up,
       eat, deplete, exhaust, run through, wipe out]
    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" [syn: corrode,
       eat, rust]

	

	75 Moby Thesaurus words for "eat":
   ablate, absorb, assimilate, bite, bleed white, break bread,
   burn up, canker, consume, corrode, count calories, deplete, devour,
   diet, digest, disregard, dissolve, down, drain, drain of resources,
   drink, eat away, eat into, eat out, eat up, engorge, engulf, erode,
   etch, exhaust, expend, fall to, fare, feed, feed on, finish,
   finish off, gnaw, gobble, gobble up, gulp, gulp down, hunger,
   ignore, imbibe, impoverish, ingest, ingurgitate, meal, nibble away,
   oxidize, partake, partake of, pitch in, pocket, pocket the affront,
   relish, rust, savor, spend, squander, stomach, suck dry, swallow,
   swallow an insult, swallow up, swill, swill down, take, taste,
   turn aside provocation, use up, waste away, wear away, wolf down

	

	EAT, v.i.  To perform successively (and successfully) the functions of
mastication, humectation, and deglutition.
    "I was in the drawing-room, enjoying my dinner," said Brillat-
Savarin, beginning an anecdote.  "What!" interrupted Rochebriant;
"eating dinner in a drawing-room?"  "I must beg you to observe,
monsieur," explained the great gastronome, "that I did not say I was
eating my dinner, but enjoying it.  I had dined an hour before."