eat — OET · Shobdo

eat

verb

1 we ate a hearty breakfast and then set off:

consume, devour, ingest, partake of, gobble (up/down), gulp (down), bolt (down), wolf (down), cram down, finish (off);

swallow, chew, munch, chomp, champ;

informal guzzle, nosh, put away, pack away, tuck into, tuck away, scoff (down), demolish, dispose of, make short work of, polish off, shovel down, get stuck into, stuff one's face with, stuff down, pig out on, sink, get outside of;

British, informal gollop, shift, get one's laughing gear round;

North American, informal scarf (down/up), snarf (down/up), inhale;

rare ingurgitate.

▷antonyms starve; fast.

2 we ate at a local restaurant:

have a meal, partake of food, take food, consume food, feed;

breakfast, lunch, dine, have breakfast, have lunch, have dinner, have supper;

feast, banquet;

informal snack, graze, nosh;

dated sup, break bread.

3 acidic water can eat away at concrete pipes:

erode, corrode, abrade, wear away (at), wear down, wear through, gnaw away (at), bite into, burn into, burn through, consume, dissolve, disintegrate, crumble, waste away, rot, decay;

damage, destroy, spoil.

□ eat one's heart out

I stayed in London, eating my heart out for you:

pine, long, ache, brood, mope, fret, sigh, sorrow, suffer, bleed, yearn, agonize, weep and wail, regret someone's loss/absence;

grieve, mourn, lament, shed tears;

be filled with envy;

informal die;

literary repine.

□ eat up

he ate up all the French fries:

eat, consume, devour, ingest, partake of, gobble (up/down), gulp (down), bolt (down), wolf (down), cram down, finish (off);

swallow, chew, munch, chomp, champ;

British, informal gollop, shift, get one's laughing gear round;

North American, informal scarf (down/up), snarf (down/up), inhale;

rare ingurgitate.

word links	eat
-phagous related suffix, as in anthropophagous -vorous related suffix, as in carnivorous

eat Oxford Dictionary of English