v. t. [ imp. Ate Obsolescent & Colloq. Eat p. p. Eaten Obs. or Colloq. Eat (&ebreve_;t); p. pr. & vb. n. Eating. ] [ OE. eten, AS. etan; akin to OS. etan, OFries. eta, D. eten, OHG. ezzan, G. essen, Icel. eta, Sw. äta, Dan. æde, Goth. itan, Ir. & Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. √6. Cf. Etch, Fret to rub, Edible. ] 1. To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. “To eat grass as oxen.” Dan. iv. 25. [ 1913 Webster ]

They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. Ps. cvi. 28. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine. Gen. xli. 20. [ 1913 Webster ]

The lion had not eaten the carcass. 1 Kings xiii. 28. [ 1913 Webster ]

With stories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab the junkets eat. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The island princes overbold
Have eat our substance. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear. [ 1913 Webster ]

To eat humble pie. See under Humble. --
To eat of (partitive use). “Eat of the bread that can not waste.” Keble. --
To eat one's words, to retract what one has said. (See the Citation under Blurt.) --
To eat out, to consume completely. “Eat out the heart and comfort of it.” Tillotson. --
To eat the wind out of a vessel (Naut.), to gain slowly to windward of her.

Syn. -- To consume; devour; gnaw; corrode. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To take food; to feed; especially, to take solid, in distinction from liquid, food; to board. [ 1913 Webster ]

He did eat continually at the king's table. 2 Sam. ix. 13. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To taste or relish; as, it eats like tender beef. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To make one's way slowly. [ 1913 Webster ]

To eat,
To eat in or
To eat into, to make way by corrosion; to gnaw; to consume. “A sword laid by, which eats into itself.” Byron. --
To eat to windward (Naut.), to keep the course when closehauled with but little steering; -- said of a vessel. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being eaten; fit to be eaten; proper for food; esculent; edible. -- n. Something fit to be eaten. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Eatable growth of grass for horses and cattle, esp. that of aftermath. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. ingested through the mouth. Contrasted with uneaten. [ Narrower terms: consumed; devoured, eaten up(predicate) ] [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. One who, or that which, eats. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. & adv. [ AS. eáðe. ] Easy or easily. [ Obs. ] “Eath to move with plaints.” Fairfax. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of tasking food; the act of consuming or corroding. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Something fit to be eaten; food; as, a peach is good eating. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Eating house, a house where cooked provisions are sold, to be eaten on the premises. [ 1913 Webster ]