[f. EAT + -ING2.]
1. That eats; chiefly in comb. with prefixed obj. Formerly also, Greedy, voracious.
1483. Cath. Angl., 118. Etynge, edax, edaculus.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 446, ¶ 6. An eating Parasite, or a vainglorious Soldier.
Mod. He has killed a man-eating tiger.
† b. quasi-sb. = EATER. Obs.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 7125 (Trin.). Of þe etyng þe mete out sprong.
1382. Wyclif, Nahum iii. 12. His vnripe fijgis … shuln falle in to the mouth of the etynge [1388 etere].
2. That consumes or eats away; gnawing, corroding, fretting: of sores, chemical corrosives, etc.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iv. III. (1651), 383. Plaisters to raise blisters, eating medicines of pich, mustard-seed and the like.
1702. Rowe, Tamerl., IV. i. 1774. Drops of eating Water on the Marble.
1835. Browning, Paracels., 130. Festering blotches, eating poisoning blains.
fig. c. 1602. Fr. Davison, Ps. lxxiii. in Farr’s S. P. (1845), 322. From sweatting toyle, and eating care.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 135. And ever against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs.
1702. Rowe, Ambit. Step-Moth., I. i. 278. That eating canker, Grief.
1876. Blackie, Songs Relig. & Life, 186. From eating care thy heart to free.
