Eat·ing n.
1. The act of tasking food; the act of consuming or corroding.
2. Something fit to be eaten; food; as, a peach is good eating. [Colloq.]
Eating house, a house where cooked provisions are sold, to be eaten on the premises.
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Eat v. t. [imp. Ate Obsolescent & Colloq. Eat p. p. Eaten Obs. or Colloq. Eat (ĕt); p. pr. & vb. n. Eating.]
1. To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. “To eat grass as oxen.”
They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. --Ps. cvi. 28.
The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine. --Gen. xli. 20.
The lion had not eaten the carcass. --1 Kings xiii. 28.
With stories told of many a feat,
How fairy Mab the junkets eat. --Milton.
The island princes overbold
Have eat our substance. --Tennyson.
His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages. --Thackeray.
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.
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.
eating
n : the act of consuming food [syn: feeding]
Eating
The ancient Hebrews would not eat with the Egyptians (Gen.
43:32). In the time of our Lord they would not eat with
Samaritans (John 4:9), and were astonished that he ate with
publicans and sinners (Matt. 9:11). The Hebrews originally sat
at table, but afterwards adopted the Persian and Chaldean
practice of reclining (Luke 7:36-50). Their principal meal was
at noon (Gen. 43:16; 1 Kings 20:16; Ruth 2:14; Luke 14:12). The
word "eat" is used metaphorically in Jer. 15:16; Ezek. 3:1; Rev.
10:9. In John 6:53-58, "eating and drinking" means believing in
Christ. Women were never present as guests at meals (q.v.).