- To eat one's words
- Eat Eat ([=e]t), v. t. [imp. {Ate} ([=a]t; 277), Obsolescent &
Colloq. {Eat} ([e^]t); p. p. {Eaten} ([=e]t"'n), Obs. or
Colloq. {Eat} ([e^]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. ["a]ta, Dan. [ae]de, Goth. itan, Ir.
& Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. [root]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]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
