verb (American).—To provision: e.g., a steamer is said to be able to EAT 400 passengers and sleep about half that number.
1846. D. CORCORAN, Pickings from the Picayune, 47. Hoosier.—‘Good as pork, Squire—what do you give?’ Contractor.—‘Ten bitts a day.’ Hoosier.—‘Why, Squire, I was told you’d give us two dollars a day and EAT us.’
1887. R. A. PROCTER, on ‘Americanisms’ in Knowledge, s.v. Sometimes a host may EAT his guests in another sense. I once, when staying at an hotel, found a finely coloured motto rather unfortunately spelt; it ran, ‘Watch and Prey.’ Its owner carried out the idea.
EAT COKE.—See COKE.
EAT CROW.—See CROW.
EAT A FIG, verb. phr. (rhyming slang).—To ‘crack a crib’; to break a house.
TO EAT ONE’S HEAD OFF, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be retained for service and stand idle; also (quot., 1850) to cost more in ‘keep’ than one is worth.
1850. F. E. SMEDLEY, Frank Fairlegh, ch. xiv. I’d rather keep her for a week than a fortnight, I can tell you; she’d EAT HER HEAD OFF in a month, and no mistake.
1872. Times, 27 Aug. ‘The Autumn Manœuvres.’ The country never would stand the maintenance all the year round of some 1,500 horses which would have nothing to do for nine months out of the twelve but EAT THEIR HEADS OFF.
1874. E. WOOD, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xxv., p. 446. And I fit to EAT MY HEAD OFF with having nothing to do.
EAT ONE’S HEAD, HAT, BOOTS, etc., verb. phr. (common).—A locution of emphatic asseveration. [Probably Dickensonian, influenced by the proverbial saying, ‘To eat one’s heart out’—to undergo intense struggle, and also TO EAT ONE’S HEAD OFF (q.v.).]—See Notes and Queries, 7 S., iii., 7, 94, 197, 352, 433.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xlii., 367. ‘Well, if I knew as little of life as that, I’d EAT MY HAT and swallow the buckle whole,’ said the clerical gentleman. Ibid. (1837), Oliver Twist, ch. xiv. This was the handsome offer with which Mr. Grimwig backed and confirmed nearly every assertion he made; and it was the more singular in his case because, even admitting, for the sake of argument, the possibility of scientific improvements being ever brought to that pass which will enable a man to EAT HIS own HEAD in the event of his being so disposed, Mr. Grimwig’s head was such a particularly large one that the most sanguine man alive could hardly entertain a hope of being able to get through it at a sitting, to put entirely out of the question a very thick coating of powder.
1887. E. E. MONEY, A Little Dutch Maiden, II., viii., 148. And if you don’t run up against him next day in Bond Street, you may EAT YOUR HAT!
TO EAT ONE’S TERMS, verb. phr. (legal).—To go through the prescribed course of study for admission to the bar. [In allusion to the dinners a student has to attend in the public hall of his inn.]
TO EAT ONE’S WORDS, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To retract a statement; to own a lie.
TO EAT UP, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To vanquish; to ruin. [Originally Zulu.]
1890. National Observer, 13 Dec., p. 88, col. 2. But buttons tarnish, hot gospelling palls, the EATING-UP of white men is in strictest consonance with regal tradition and the regal habit.
