To feed.
1842. [The Bay State Democrat says that Mr. Dickens] has declined the invitation of the Philadelphians to eat him.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, March 4.
1850. Having to provide our own fare, or, as one of the party facetiously expressed it, to “eat ourselves,” and sleep on deck, or among the mosquitoes of the thulé marshes on shore, we were kindly accommodated with a passage on this diminutive craft.—James L. Tyson, ‘Diary in California,’ p. 52 (N.Y.).
1854. You do promise to take this ere woman, to eat her, and to drink her, and keep her in things to wear, as long as you and she lives.—H. H. Riley, ‘Puddleford,’ pp. 143–4 (N.Y.).
a. 1860. I was told you’d give us two dollars a day and eat us.—‘Pickings from the Picayune,’ p. 47 (Bartlett).
