eat
/it/ verb A1- To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it. · He's eating an apple.· Don't disturb me now. Can't you see that I'm eating?
- To consume a meal. · What time do we eat this evening?
- To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed. · I try to eat healthy these days.
- To be ingested. · It's a soup that eats like a meal.
- To be savored or enjoyed; to taste in a specified way. · It's an unattractive dish, but it eats pretty good.
- To destroy, consume, or use up. · This project is eating up all the money.· That hobby eats his savings.
- To consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it.
- To damage, destroy, or fail to eject a removable part or an inserted object. · The VHS recorder just ate the tape and won't spit it out.· John is late for the meeting because the photocopier ate his report.
Plural eat · He/she/it eats · Past ate · Past participle eaten · -ing form eating
Verb forms
- Base form
- eat
- He/she/it
- eats
- Past
- ate
- Past participle
- eaten
- -ing form
- eating
An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
“If I eat one of these cakes,” she thought, “it’s sure to make _some_ change in my size; and as it can’t possibly make me larger, it must make me smaller, I suppose.”
“I know _something_ interesting is sure to happen,” she said to herself, “whenever I eat or drink anything; so I’ll just see what this bottle does.
Why, she’ll eat a little bird as soon as look at it!”
Both things to eat and things to see,
Other matches
Learn eat in real texts
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