Word: eat Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti, from *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognates Cognate with Scots ait (“to eat”), Yola ayth, eight (“to eat”), North Frisian iidj, iit, ää'e, ääre, ääse (“to eat”), Saterland Frisian iete, íete (“to eat”), West Frisian ite (“to eat”), Alemannic German asse, assu, essen, ässe, ässä (“to eat”), Bavarian eisn, essn, èssn (“to eat”), Cimbrian èssan, èzzan (“to eat”), Dutch and Low German eten (“to eat”), German essen (“to eat”), Luxembourgish iessen (“to eat”), Mòcheno èssn (“to eat”), Vilamovian aosa (“to eat”), Yiddish עסן (esn, “to eat”), Danish æde (“to eat”), Elfdalian jätå (“to eat”), Faroese eta (“to eat”), Icelandic eta, éta (“to eat”), Norwegian Bokmål ete (“to eat”), Norwegian Nynorsk eta, ete, åtå (“to eat”), Swedish äta (“to eat”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan, “to eat”). Pronunciation: /iːt/, /it/ 1. To ingest. Labels: ambitransitive Example: He's eating an apple. Example: Don't disturb me now. Can't you see that I'm eating? 2. To ingest. Labels: intransitive Example: What time do we eat this evening? Example: I eat in the kitchen. 3. To ingest. Labels: copulative, intransitive Example: I try to eat healthy these days. 4. To be ingested. Labels: ergative, intransitive Example: It's a soup that eats like a meal. 5. To use up. Labels: figuratively, often, transitive, with-up Example: This project is eating up all the money. Example: That hobby eats his savings. 6. To use up. Labels: figuratively, informal, transitive Example: A bigger problem, however, is that if you catch/eat an exception and do nothing with it, you are very likely introducing subtle bugs in your application that will be next to impossible to track down. 7. To use up. Labels: figuratively, informal, transitive Example: The VHS recorder just ate the tape and won't spit it out. Example: John is late for the meeting because the photocopier ate his report. 8. To use up. Labels: figuratively, informal, transitive Example: The video game in the corner just ate my quarter. Example: Hey! This stupid [soda vending] machine ate my quarter. 9. To cause (someone) to worry. Labels: informal, transitive Example: What's eating you? 10. To take the loss in a transaction. Labels: transitive Example: I have to have him in court tomorrow, if he doesn't show up, I forfeit the bond and I have to eat the $300,000. Example: The server made an error when taking the order. The bartender prepared two scorpion bowls. When the error was realized the bartender was faced with having to "eat" the extra scorpion bowl […] 11. To be injured or killed by (something such as a firearm or its projectile), especially in the mouth. Labels: slang, transitive Example: I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and Eddie Mars' gang. I dodge bullets and eat saps. Example: And, of course, there was Brian Rusk, who had eaten a bullet at the ripe old age of eleven. 12. To corrode or erode. Labels: ambitransitive Example: The acid rain ate away the statue. The strong acid eats through the metal. 13. To perform oral sex (on a person or body part). Labels: slang, transitive Example: Eat me! Example: I ate his ass. 14. To do or perform well and stunningly; to consume a challenge successfully and stylishly; to rule, to slay. Labels: slang, stative Example: You ate that performance! Example: This song eats! 15. To annex. Labels: slang, transitive