eat.
To ingest.
Meaning & usage
To ingest. 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 ingest. To consume a meal.
What time do we eat this evening?
To ingest. 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 use up. To destroy, consume, or use up.
This project is eating up all the money.
That hobby eats his savings.
To use up. To consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it.
To use up. 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.
To use up. To consume money (or other instruments of value, such as a token) deposited or inserted by a user, while failing to either provide the intended product or service or return the payment.
The video game in the corner just ate my quarter.
To cause (someone) to worry.
What's eating you?
To take the loss in a transaction.
To be injured or killed by (something such as a firearm or its projectile), especially in the mouth.
To corrode or erode.
The acid rain ate away the statue. The strong acid eats through the metal.
To perform oral sex (on a person or body part).
Eat me!
I ate his ass.
To do or perform well and stunningly; to consume a challenge successfully and stylishly; to rule, to slay.
You ate that performance!
This song eats!
To act well (in a role); to be intensely devoted (to a role).
Most of the movie was pretty weak, but she ate her role, and I couldn't take my eyes off her.
To annex.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti, from *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognates Cognate with Scots ait (“to eat”), Yola ayth, eight (“to eat”), North Frisian iidj, iit, ää'e, ääre, ääse (“to eat”), Saterland Frisian iete, íete (“to eat”), West Frisian ite (“to eat”), Alemannic German asse, assu, essen, ässe, ässä (“to eat”), Bavarian eisn, essn, èssn (“to eat”), Cimbrian èssan, èzzan (“to eat”), Dutch and Low German eten (“to eat”), German essen (“to eat”), Luxembourgish iessen (“to eat”), Mòcheno èssn (“to eat”), Vilamovian aosa (“to eat”), Yiddish עסן (esn, “to eat”), Danish æde (“to eat”), Elfdalian jätå (“to eat”), Faroese eta (“to eat”), Icelandic eta, éta (“to eat”), Norwegian Bokmål ete (“to eat”), Norwegian Nynorsk eta, ete, åtå (“to eat”), Swedish äta (“to eat”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan, “to eat”).
Something to be eaten; a meal; a food item.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English ete, ate, æte, from Old English ǣt (“food, eating”), from Proto-West Germanic *āt, from Proto-Germanic *ētą (“food, thing to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognate with West Frisian iten (“food”), Saterland Frisian Íeten (“food”), German Aas (“carrion”), Vilamovian aosa (“food”), Icelandic át (“eating; solid food”).
Try it on your idea.
eat has 3 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.