Eat Definition

ēt

ate, eating, eats

verb

ate, eating, eats

To put (food) in the mouth, chew if necessary, and swallow.

Webster's New World

To take in and absorb as food.

A plant that eats insects; a cell that eats bacteria.

American Heritage Medicine

To include habitually or by preference in one's diet.

A bird that eats insects, fruit, and seeds; started eating less red meat on advice from my doctor.

American Heritage Medicine

To destroy or use up something gradually.

Webster's New World

To penetrate and destroy, as acid does; corrode.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

idiom

eat crow

American Heritage

eat (one's) heart out

American Heritage

eat (one's) words

American Heritage

eat out of (someone's) hand

American Heritage

eat (someone) alive

To overwhelm or defeat thoroughly:
an inexperienced manager who was eaten alive in a competitive corporate environment.

American Heritage

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Eat

From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognate with Scots aet (“to eat”), West Frisian ite, Low German eten (“to eat”), Dutch eten (“to eat”), German essen (“to eat”), Swedish äta (“to eat”), Danish æde (“to eat”), and more distantly with Latin edō (“eat”, verb), Ancient Greek ἔδω (edō), Russian есть (jest', “to eat”), and Lithuanian ėsti.

From Wiktionary
Middle English eten from Old English etan ed- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition