Pa. t. ate, eat. Pa. pple. eaten. Forms: Inf. 1–2 et-, eat-, eatt-, eotan, 2–4 eat-, eoten, ete(n, (2–3 aeten, 4 ethen, 3–4 hete, heyt), 4–6 ete, ette, (4 eete, ehyt, 4–5 eyt(e), 3–7 eate, 6 Sc. eait, eit, 6– eat. Pa. t. 1–3 æt, (2 æat), 2–4 et(t, 4–6 ete, 3–4 at, (4 hete), 4–5 eet(te, 6–7 eate, 7–9 eat, 6– ate. Pa. pple. 1–5 eten, 4–5 ete, eete(n, 4–6 etin(e, -un, -yn, ettyn, 6 Sc. eatin, eittin, 7–9 eat, 8–9 ate, 7– eaten. [Common Teut. and OE. etan str. vb. (3rd sing. pr. ytt, ieteþ, pa. t. 1st, 3rd sing. ǽt, æt, pl. ǽton, pa. pple. eten) = OFris. ita, eta, OS. etan (MDu., Du. eten), OHG. ezan, ezzan (MHG. ezzen, mod.G. essen), ON. eta (Sw. äta, Da. äde), Goth. itan:—OTeut. etan = L. ed-ĕre, Gr. ἔδ-ειν, Ir., Gael. ith, Lith. ed-, Skr. ad-. The accentuation of OE. MSS. shows that this verb differed, as in Goth. and ON., from other verbs of the same conjugation in having a long vowel in the pa. t. sing. ǽt, whence the mod. eat (īt); but a form æt, with short vowel, must also have existed, as is proved by the ME. form at, mod. ate. The pronunc. (et) is commonly associated with the written form ate, but perh. belongs rather to eat, with shortened vowel after analogy of wk. vbs. read, lead, etc.; cf. dial. (bet) pa. t. of beat.]
I. To consume for nutriment.
1. trans. To take into the mouth piecemeal, and masticate and swallow as food; to consume as food. Usually of solids only.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter xlix. [l.] 13. Ah ic eotu flesc ferra.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John vi. 54. Se hæfð ece lif þe ytt [c. 1160 Hatton et] min flæsc.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 181. For þat þu ete þat ich þe forboden hadde.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 337. Sum ȝhe ðer at, and sum ȝhe nam, And bar it to her fere adam.
a. 1300. Cursor M. (Cott.), 922. Þou sal wit … suinc Win þat þou sal ete and drinc. Ibid., 11111. He hete na bred ne dranc na win.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. xxxvii. 30. Et this ȝer that freeli ben sprunge, and in the secunde ȝer et appelis.
c. 1400. Maundev., ii. (1839), 11. That Tree that Adam ete the appulle of.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum, 29. Tho heroun is rosted … And eton with gynger.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., 498. The Tacianys … helden that fleisch schulde not be ete.
1508. Fisher, Wks., I. (1876), 56. Ete vnholsome metes, and anone cometh sekenes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531), 174. A synner is not worthy the breed that he eateth.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr. (1619), 700–1. In that golden age … they … eate rootes for breade, and fruites for flesh.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 724. Whoso eats thereof forthwith attains Wisdom.
1763. Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury, I. 93. Whitebait … are only to be eat at Greenwich.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 22. 155. Up to this point I had eaten nothing.
b. Of liquid or semifluid food. Now chiefly with reference to soup, or other similar food for which a spoon is used.
1644. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 75. We eat excellent cream.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 405. I observed it afterwards not only to eat Milk.
1789. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. falling Minis., Wks. 1812, II. 127.
| Yes: had his Highness but vouchsafed to stoop, | |
| With heaven-born Pitt he might have eat his soup. |
1885. Sinnett, Karma, II. 36. He began to eat the soup.
c. In phrases, To have something, enough, little, etc., to eat; formerly also To have to eat, to give (a person) to eat. Cf. F. donner à manger.
In some dialects ‘something to eat’ is the common expression for food: ‘The something to eat at the hotel was very good’ (Sheffield).
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., III. xi. § 3. Seo leo bringð his hungreʓum hwelpum hwæt to etanne.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 147. Mon . leuseð his fleis, hwenne he him ȝefeð lutel to etene.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 13501. All þai had i-nogh at ette.
a. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 6191. Yhe wald noght gyfe me at ete.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 17. Þei hadden not to ete.
1611. Bible, 2 Chron. xxxi. 10. Wee haue had enough to eate.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Oct., 2/2. We had hardly anything to eat all the while we were prisoners.
† d. fig. To submit to, ‘swallow’ (an insult, an injury). Also, To treasure up, ‘feed upon’ (thoughts, words, etc.); orig. a Biblical idiom.
1382. Wyclif, Jer. xv. 16. Found ben thi wrdys, and Y eet hem [1611 I did eate them].
1607. Dekker, Sir T. Wyatt, Wks. 1873, III. 119. Ile eate no wrongs, lets all die, and Ile dye.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 185. Hee vtters them as he had eaten ballads, and all mens eares grew to his Tunes.
e. absol. with of in partitive sense. In early ME. sometimes with genitive.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. iii. 17. For ðan … ðu æte of ðam treowe.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 11. Moyses … þes daȝes … nefre ne ete mennisses metes.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 241. Se þe of þese brad ett, ne sterfeð he nefer.
c. 1205. Lay., 18858. Of his breosten scullen æten aðele scopes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3944. O sinnu etes [v.r. etis] neuer juu.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 5258. Hymself dronke whit wyn & eten of hure vytaile.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 108. Finding him eating of an Albrew.
1611. Bible, Ex. xxxiv. 15. Lest … thou eate of his sacrifice.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, I. ii. 19. But the rest eat very voraciously of a loaf of coarse bread.
2. Phrases, chiefly transf. and fig.
a. To eat one’s terms: a colloquial phrase for ‘to be studying for the Bar’; students being required to have dined in the Hall of an Inn of Court three or more times during each of twelve terms before they can be ‘called.’
1834. Macaulay, Pitt, Misc. (1860), II. 312. He had already begun to eat his terms.
1861. Lever, One of Them, 159. He had eaten his terms in Gray’s Inn.
† b. To eat the air: to be ‘fed upon promises,’ tantalized. Obs.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. iii. 28. Who lin’d himself with hope, Eating the ayre, on promise of Supply.
c. To eat one’s words: to retract in a humiliating manner. See also HUMBLE PIE.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lxii. 12. God eateth not his word when he hath once spoken.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Rem. (1644), 73. Nay wee’le make you confesse that you were deceived in your projects, and eat your own words.
1679. Hist. Jetzer, 35. He … began to boggle, and would fain have eaten his words.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., IV. i. Ye lied auld roudes,—and, in faith, had best Eat in your words.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), VII. xli. Unguarded words, which, as soon as you have uttered them, you would die to eat.
1837. Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar (1844), Ded. 7. Quoting one’s own books is next worst to eating one’s own words.
d. † To eat iron, a sword: to be stabbed (obs.). To eat stick: a mod. orientalism for ‘to be beaten.’
15[?]. Hickscorner, in Hazl., Dodsley, I. 168. The whoreson shall eat him [i.e., the dagger], as far as he shall wade.
1594. Contention betw. Lancaster & York, I. (1843), 63. Ile make thee eate yron like an Astridge.
1862. W. M. Thomson, Land & Book, 319. I frequently hear them say of one who has been bastinadoed on the soles of his feet, that he has eaten fifty or five hundred sticks.
1865. Spectator, 4 Feb., 122. The uncivilized freedom in which they could do as they liked, ‘eating stick’ included.
e. In certain Biblical Hebraisms; To eat the fruit of one’s own doings: to receive the reward of one’s actions; To eat the good of the land, etc.
1611. Bible, Prov. xiii. 2. A man shall eate good by the fruit of his mouth. Ibid., Isa. iii. 10. They shall eate the fruit of their doings.
f. To eat earth: a colonial expression for ‘to possess oneself of land’; cf. earth-hunger.
1882. Times, 8 April, 9/5. In the interior of the Australian continent can eat as much earth as he likes for 5s. to 10s. a square mile.
3. intr. To consume food, take a meal.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter xxi[i]. 26. Eatað ðearfan and bið ʓefylled.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. lxxvii[i]. 29. Swiðe ætan and sade wurdan.
c. 1175. Cott. Hom., 223. [Hio] æat and ȝiaf hire were, and he æt.
c. 1205. Lay., 13456. For alle heo sculden aeten [1275 heote] ther.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1779. Ðor-on he eten bliðe and glað.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 3497. Whenne they hadde eeten, the cloth was folde.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxi. 27. Þe pore sall ete & þai sall be fild.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 93. Weþer het ȝe or drynk … do all þingis in þe name of our Lord.
1483. Cath. Angl., 118. To Ete, epulari.
1526. Tindale, Acts xi. 3. Thou wentest in unto men uncircumcised and atest with them.
1563. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 905/2. Now we cannot eat, unless we gnaw with our Teeth, in bruising that we eat.
a. 1678. Marvell, Wks., III. 457. He had not eat since the day before at noon.
1687. Shadwell, Juvenal, 23. He does forget … his Friends Face, with whom last Night he Eat.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 46. They eat and sleep at proper intervals like all other quadrupedes.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wealth, Wks. (Bohn), II. 74. There should be temperance … in eating.
b. To eat well: to have a good appetite; also, to keep a good table, be an epicure. So also † To eat ill: to be badly fed.
1677. Earl Orrery, Art of War, 16–7. The Peasant,… eats, and lodges worse, than the Citizen.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 148, ¶ 9. Who is a great Admirer of the French Cookery, and (as the Phrase is) eats well.
c. Const. † on, upon (a kind of food). Cf. to dine on, feed on; also 1 e. Also const. from, off, † in (gold, china, etc.).
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. iii. 84. Have we eaten on the insane Root, That takes the Reason Prisoner?
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 463. [He] did eate vpon Cakes made with meale and hony.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, II. 1474. Hee alwayes eates in priuate among his women vpon great varietie of excellent Dishes.
1642. C’tess Sussex, in 7th Rep. Comm. Hist. MSS. (1879). I am loth … to eat in pewter yet, but truly I have put up most of my plate.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 82. Yet on plain pudding deign’d at home to eat.
4. quasi-trans. uses of 3.
a. with obj. followed by adj. or prep.: To affect in a certain way by eating: e.g., To eat oneself sick, into a sickness; to eat (a person) out of house and home (i.e., to ruin him by eating up his resources); of animals: To eat the ground bare.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4574. In þat medu sa lang þai war þat etten þai had it erthe bare.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 80. All I haue, he hath eaten me out of house and home.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1755), 53. John’s family was like to be eat out of house and home.
1807. Anna Porter, Hungar. Bro., v. You would not deny me my dinner, because I might eat myself into an apoplexy.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, iv. 54. They would soon eat us out of house and home.
b. To eat its head off: said of an animal that costs more for food than it will sell for.
1736. Byrom, Jrnl. & Lit. Rem. (1856), II. I. 35–6. The eating his head off means that he would eat as much hay and corn as he was worth.
1860. Trollope, Framley P., xiv. 277. A gentleman … does not like to leave him [a good horse] eating his head off.
1877. E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cattle which have been bought at a loss are said to eat their heads off.
c. To eat one’s fill: to eat until satisfied.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 53. Þe tadde … neure ne mei itimien to eten hire fulle.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12947. Bidd þir stanes be bred to will, And siþen mai þou ete þi fill.
1611. Bible, Lev. xxv. 19. And the land shall yeeld her fruit, and ye shal eat your fill, and dwell therin in safetie.
1737. Pope, Hor. Epist., II. ii. 323. You’ve play’d, and lov’d, and eat, and drunk, your fill.
5. intr. with pass. force (chiefly with adj. or adv.): To have a certain consistence or flavor when eaten.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 175. Like one of our French wither’d peares, it lookes ill, it eates drily.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 46. Being dressed they eate like Barbles.
1682. J. Collins, Making Salt Eng., 6. A Chine of this Beef … Eat with a savour like Marrow.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., xvi. (1857), 96. If the cakes at tea eat short and crisp.
6. To cause to be eaten.
† a. (See quot.)
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 71. Cheese … that will spend well, or according to the common Phrase, will eat Bread well.
b. To have (a crop, etc.) eaten; to give up (to animals) to be eaten. Const. with.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., F iij. Their dead with dogs Hircanians do eate.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 218. A custom of eating his hay, sometimes, with sheep, close to the ground.
1868. Perthshire Jrnl., 18 June. The pasture … he intended to eat with sheep.
¶ 7. U. S. slang. To provide with food.
1846. Pickings fr. Picayune, 47 (Bartlett). I was told you’d give us two dollars a day and eat us.
Mod. I can eat you and drink you, but I can’t sleep you.
II. To destroy by devouring.
8. trans. To devour, consume (as a beast of prey); to prey upon; to feed destructively upon (crops, vegetation); transf. to ravage, devastate. lit. and fig.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John x. 10. Ðeaf ne cymes buta þæt te ʓestele & eteð [V. mactet] & losað.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter (Mätz.). Þei ete [V. comederunt] Jacob, ilka lim, And unroned þe stede of him.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22862. Men … Wit hundes eten þe mast parti.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxi. 21. Saf me þat þe deuel ete me noght.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 65. Or Earth gape open wide, and eate him quicke.
1611. Bible, Ex. x. 12. That they may come vp vpon the land of Egypt, and eate euery herbe of the land.
1730. Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 196. The gaunt mastiff … Affrights the beggar whom he longs to eat.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., 8. Monsters who were in the habit of eating children.
Mod. He went to Africa, and got eaten by a lion.
† b. To absorb (time) wastefully. Obs.
1598. Marston, Pigmal., 50. His ruffe did eate more time in neatest setting Then Woodstocks worke in painfull perfecting.
c. To eat one’s (own) heart: to suffer from silent grief or vexation. Also in Biblical phrase, To eat one’s own flesh: said of an indolent person.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. ii. 6. He could not rest; but did his stout heart eat.
1611. Bible, Eccles. iv. 5. The foole foldeth his hands together, and eateth his owne flesh.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., cviii. 3. I will not eat my heart alone.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 333. Eating away their own hearts in the consciousness of an ineffectual protest.
9. trans. Of small animals: To gnaw, pierce, wear away by gnawing.
1611. Bible, Acts xii. 23. Hee was eaten of wormes, and gaue vp the ghost.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 61, note. It is not uncommon for the timber of ships to be eat by the worm under the copper sheathing.
c. 1822. Beddoes, Alfarabi, Poems 137. Many a wrinkled sun Ate to the core by worms.
10. transf. Of slow and gradual action, as of frost, rust, cancerous or similar disease, chemical corrosives, the waves, etc. Const. into (the result).
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind., III. IX. (Arb.), 177. It is eaten & indented with two goulfes.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 100. The Rose though a lyttle it be eaten with the canker.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 12. The Dreadnought’s Rudder-Irons being … so eaten, as not to be fit for her being adventured to Sea again with them.
1796. Coleridge, Destiny of Nat., Wks. I. 199. His limbs The silent frost had eat, scathing like fire.
1819. J. Hodgson, in J. Raine, Mem. (1857), I. 265. The cliffs chalky and stratified, like those of Marsden, eaten into caves.
b. absol.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. clxxiii. 484. Arsnick … bindeth, eateth, and fretteth, being a very strong corrosiue.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 242. Being washed three or four times, it Bites or Eats not, but dries quickly.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 520/2. To eat as rust doth; Rodere, exedere. To eat as a Canker doth; Corrodere, exulcerare.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. vii. (1865), 280. His disease was a scrofula, which appeared to have eaten all over him.
† c. fig. Of passions, grief, etc.: To ‘devour,’ torment. Cf. eat up 18. Obs.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John ii. 17. Þines huses anda me et [c. 1160 Hatton ett].
a. 1225. St. Marher., 17. For onde that et ever ant aa ure heorte.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23280. Enst and hete, þat iþenli þair hertes ete.
11. To make (a hole, a passage) by fretting or corrosion. With cognate obj. To eat one’s (its) way. lit. and fig.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 843/121.
| ’Till the slow creeping Evil eats his way, | |
| Consumes the parching Limbs; and makes the Life his prey. |
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint., V. 138. Something like a figure eaten into the barril.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxvi. 344. The long canal which the running waters have eaten into the otherwise unchanged ice.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 138. Little water-courses may be eaten out of solid rock by a running stream.
12. intr. To make a way by gnawing or corrosion; lit. and fig. Const. into, through.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 136. How one man eates into anothers pride.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks. (1660), 189. The canker … eats through the cheek.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 674/116. Searching Frosts, have eaten through the Skin.
1780. Cowper, Table Talk, 8. Strange doctrine this! that … eats into his [the warrior’s] bloody sword like rust.
1837. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (ed. 2), III. xxii. 365. Has not the desire of wealth so eaten into our hearts?
1861. Bright, India, Sp., 19 March (1876), 61. Anticipation … more likely to eat into the heart of any man.
13. Naut. trans. and intr. (See quots.)
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Sourdre au vent, to hold a good wind; to claw or eat to windward.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Eating the wind out of a vessel. Applies to very keen seamanship, by which the vessel … steals to windward of her opponent.
III. Combined with adverbs. (All trans.)
14. Eat away. To remove, destroy by gradual erosion or corrosion. lit. and fig.
1538. Starkey, England, ii. 46. They be as hyt were etyn away.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 147. The river … frequently eats away its banks.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., i. 8. Carbonic acid eats away the limestone.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 286. The sun still eats away the shadow inch by inch.
15. Eat in. † a. To take into the mouth and eat; fig. to consider, ‘inwardly digest.’ Also, to consume, waste away (obs.). b. To ‘bite in’ with acid, etch.
c. 1340. Cursor M., App. ii. 20527. Þe appel of a tre that adam toke & ete it Inne.
1603. Florio, Montaigne (1632), 133. That their very skin, and quicke flesh is eaten in and consumed to the bones.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 125. What I have said, I’le neither lesse nor more, Nowe eate it in.
16. Eat off. To take off or remove by eating.
1640. Fuller, Joseph’s Coat, viii. (1867), 182. Some thieves have eat off their irons … with mercury water.
17. Eat out. a. = to bite out.
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thorne, I. 267. I suppose I ought to eat my tongue out, before I should say such a thing.
b. To exhaust eatables or pasture in (a place).
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., VI. XV. xi. 71. But, in the mean while, he is eating-out these Bohemian vicinages.
1887. Seton-Karr, in Pall Mall Gaz., 30 March, 6/1. Wyoming is a natural grazing country of great resources; and to suppose that it can be ‘eaten out’ in ten years or a generation is to suppose an impossibility.
c. To destroy as a parasite or a corrosive. Also fig.
1616. [see 18 b].
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Breath. Devout Soul (1851), 165. Yet, when we have all done, time eats us out at the last.
1656. W. Du Gard, trans. Comenius’ Gate Lat. Unl., § 103. 33. Yvie clambering over trees, eateth them out.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 74. A little of the said oyl … presently eats out the Colour.
1677. Yarranton, Engl. Improv., 146. The cheapness of these Threds will eat out the very Spinning in most parts of England.
d. To encroach upon (space, formerly also time) belonging to something else.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1717), V. 67. No … Business of State ate out his times of Attendance in the Church.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. iv. I. 197. A certain handsome room on the ground floor, eating out a back-yard.
e. Mining. (See quot.)
1851. Coal-trade Terms Northumbld. & Durham, 25. Eat out, this expression is applied when a level coal drift is turned to the dip, in order to take advantage of (or ‘eat out’) a rise hitch.
18. Eat up. a. To consume completely, eat without leaving any; to devour greedily. Also fig.
1535. Coverdale, Bel & Dr., 22. Ate vp soch thinges as were vpon ye altare.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. E ij. By this meanes rich men eate vp poore men, as beasts eate vp grasse.
1816. Jane Austen, Emma, ii. The wedding-cake was all ate up.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 1472. Monsieur Leonci Miranda ate her up with eye-devouring.
b. To devastate, consume all the food in (a country); to consume all (a person’s) provisions or resources; to ruin (a person) for one’s own benefit. Also (in mod. use) of nations: To absorb, annex rapaciously (neighboring territories).
1616. Hieron, Wks., I. 589. Goe not from the church, to eate out & to eate vp one another in the market, by fraud & cruelty.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Times (1823), I. 413. He set as many soldiers upon him, as should eat him up in a night.
1721. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 158. The Scots were sent home, after having eaten up two counties.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., vii. (1738), 146. Others … would not fail to make themselves yet greater or stronger by eating up their neighbours.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, v. 42. On they swept eating up the country.
1884. Graphic, 4 Oct., 342/2. The Boers … will gradually ‘eat-up’ all the surrounding territories, as they are now ‘eating-up’ Zululand.
c. fig. To absorb wastefully; to have a destructive effect upon; to consume (time, money, etc.).
1680. W. Allen, Peace & Unity, Pref. p. liv. Hath eaten up the comfort of love in a great measure.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 6, ¶ 4. The Affectation of being Gay and in Fashion, has very near eaten up our good Sense and our Religion.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N. (1869), II. V. ii. 416. Whose salaries may eat up the greater part of the produce of the tax.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxxv. The sun had so much power … that it eat up the wind.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. xviii. (1879), 179. I got a bit of Sophocles that was so horridly hard, it ate up all my time.
d. To absorb, assimilate the ideas of (a writer).
1561. Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 138. We say in Dutch, He hath eaten Galen or Priscian quyte vp, that is to say, he hath learned them by hart.
1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., 281. Kant ate up all Hume, and redigested him.
e. Of passions: To ‘consume,’ absorb (a person). Of diseases, troubles, etc.: To wear out the life of (a person). Chiefly in pass.; const. with (pride, selfishness, etc.; a disease, debts, etc.).
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 391. I see, you are eaten vp with Passion.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 494, ¶ 1. The saint was … generally eaten up with spleen and melancholy.
1751. Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. vi. 109. Nehemiah found the people … eaten up with debts.
1796. Jane Austen, Pride & Prej., v. (1813), I. 39. Every body says that he is ate up with pride.
1799. in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1845), III. 316. The garrison is … eat up with the scurvy.
† f. To elide or slur over (syllables) in pronunciation. Obs. rare. [So. Fr. manger.]
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 57. Sa is the hinmest lang syllabe the hinmest fute, suppose there be vther short syllabis behind it, quhilkis are eatin vp in the pronounceing, and na wayis comptit as fete.
IV. The verb-stem in comb. with obj.: eat-all, a glutton; † eat-flesh, transl. L. sarcophagus, Gr. σαρκοφάγος the name of a kind of stone that had the property of consuming the flesh of corpses laid in it (see SARCOPHAGUS).
1598. Florio, Pamphago, the name of a dogge, as one would saie a rauener, an eate-all.
1884. C. Power, in Gentl. Mag., Feb., 121. Idle people in the community—do nothings and eat-alls.
1632. Sherwood, An eate-flesh, sarcophago.
