eater
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
eat/iːt/
▶verb (past ate /ɛt, eɪt/; past part. eaten)
- 1 put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it.
■ (eat out or in) have a meal in a restaurant (or at home).
- 2 (eat something away or eat away at/into) erode or destroy something gradually.
■ (eat something up) use resources in very large quantities.
■ (eat someone up) dominate someone's thoughts completely.
– phrases
eat one's heart out suffer from excessive longing for something unattainable.
eat like a bird (or a horse) informal eat very little (or a lot).
eat one's words retract what one has said, especially in a humiliated way.
I'll eat my hat informal said to indicate that one thinks something is extremely unlikely to happen.
what's eating you (or him etc.)? informal what is worrying or annoying you?
eat one's heart out suffer from excessive longing for something unattainable.
eat like a bird (or a horse) informal eat very little (or a lot).
eat one's words retract what one has said, especially in a humiliated way.
I'll eat my hat informal said to indicate that one thinks something is extremely unlikely to happen.
what's eating you (or him etc.)? informal what is worrying or annoying you?
– derivatives
eater noun.
eater noun.
– origin OE etan, of Gmc origin.
'eater' also found in these Oxford entries:
assassin
- bee-eater
- capybara
- chowhound
- eat
- finicky
- fire-eater
- glutton
- lotus-eater
- toady
