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Consume vs. Eat — What's the Difference?

Consume vs. Eat — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Consume and Eat

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Consume

To take in as food; eat or drink up.

Eat

Put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it
Eat up all your peas
He was eating a hot dog
She watched her son as he ate

Consume

To expend; use up
Engines that consume less fuel.
A project that consumed most of my time and energy.

Eat

Light food or snacks
These make great party eats

Consume

To purchase (goods or services) for direct use or ownership.
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Eat

To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption.

Consume

To waste; squander.

Eat

To take in and absorb as food
A plant that eats insects.
A cell that eats bacteria.

Consume

To destroy totally; ravage
Flames that consumed the house.
A body consumed by cancer.

Eat

To include habitually or by preference in one's diet
A bird that eats insects, fruit, and seeds.
Stopped eating red meat on advice from her doctor.

Consume

To absorb; engross
Consumed with jealousy.

Eat

To destroy, ravage, or use up by or as if by ingesting
"Covering news in the field eats money" (George F. Will).

Consume

To purchase economic goods and services
A society that consumes as fast as it produces.

Eat

To erode or corrode
Waves that ate away the beach.
An acid that eats the surface of a machine part.

Consume

(transitive) To use up.
The power plant consumes 30 tons of coal per hour.

Eat

To produce by eating
Moths ate holes in our sweaters.

Consume

(transitive) To eat.
Baby birds consume their own weight in food each day.

Eat

(Slang) To absorb the cost or expense of
"You can eat your loss and switch the remaining money to other investment portfolios" (Marlys Harris).

Consume

(transitive) To completely occupy the thoughts or attention of.
Desire consumed him.

Eat

(Informal) To bother or annoy
What's eating him?.

Consume

(transitive) To destroy completely.
The building was consumed by fire.

Eat

Vulgar slang To perform cunnilingus or anilingus on. Often used with out.

Consume

To waste away slowly.

Eat

To consume food.

Consume

To trade money for good or services as an individual.
In a materialistic society, individuals are taught to consume, consume, consume.
If you consume this product while in Japan, you may be subject to consumption tax.

Eat

To have or take a meal.

Consume

(transitive) To absorb information, especially through the mass media.
The Internet has changed the way we consume news.

Eat

To exercise a consuming or eroding effect
A drill that ate away at the rock.
Exorbitant expenses that were eating into profits.

Consume

To destroy, as by decomposition, dissipation, waste, or fire; to use up; to expend; to waste; to burn up; to eat up; to devour.
If he were putting to my house the brandThat shall consume it.
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume.
Let me alone . . . that I may consume them.

Eat

To cause persistent annoyance or distress
"How long will it be before the frustration eats at you?" (Howard Kaplan).

Consume

To waste away slowly.
Therefore, let Benedick, like covered fire,Consume away in sighs.

Eat

To ingest; to be ingested.

Consume

Eat immoderately;
Some people can down a pound of meat in the course of one meal

Eat

(ambitransitive) 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?

Consume

Serve oneself to, or consume regularly;
Have another bowl of chicken soup!
I don't take sugar in my coffee

Eat

(intransitive) To consume a meal.
What time do we eat this evening?

Consume

Spend extravagantly;
Waste not, want not

Eat

To be eaten.
It's a soup that eats like a meal.

Consume

Destroy completely;
The fire consumed the building

Eat

To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed (typically as "eat healthy" or "eat good").

Consume

Use up (resources or materials);
This car consumes a lot of gas
We exhausted our savings
They run through 20 bottles of wine a week

Eat

To use up.

Consume

Engage fully;
The effort to pass the exam consumed all his energy

Eat

To destroy, consume, or use up.
This project is eating up all the money.

Eat

To consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it.

Eat

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.

Eat

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.

Eat

To cause (someone) to worry.
What's eating you?

Eat

To take the loss in a transaction.

Eat

To be injured or killed by (something such as a firearm or its projectile), especially in the mouth.

Eat

(ambitransitive) To corrode or erode.
The acid rain ate away the statue.
The strong acid eats through the metal.

Eat

To perform oral sex (on a person or body part).
Eat me!
I ate his ass.
Yeah, eat that dick / eat that pussy.

Eat

To be very good; to rule; to rock.
You ate that performance!

Eat

(colloquial) Something to be eaten; a meal; a food item.

Eat

To chew and swallow as food; to devour; - said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread.
They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead.
The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.
The lion had not eaten the carcass.
With stories told of many a feat,How fairy Mab the junkets eat.
The island princes overboldHave eat our substance.
His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.

Eat

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.

Eat

To take food; to feed; especially, to take solid, in distinction from liquid, food; to board.
He did eat continually at the king's table.

Eat

To taste or relish; as, it eats like tender beef.

Eat

To make one's way slowly.

Eat

Take in solid food;
She was eating a banana
What did you eat for dinner last night?

Eat

Eat a meal; take a meal;
We did not eat until 10 P.M. because there were so many phone calls
I didn't eat yet, so I gladly accept your invitation

Eat

Take in food; used of animals only;
This dog doesn't eat certain kinds of meat
What do whales eat?

Eat

Use up (resources or materials);
This car consumes a lot of gas
We exhausted our savings
They run through 20 bottles of wine a week

Eat

Worry or cause anxiety in a persistent way;
What's eating you?

Eat

Cause to deteriorate due to the action of water, air, or an acid;
The acid corroded the metal
The steady dripping of water rusted the metal stopper in the sink

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