Eat vs. Ate — What's the Difference?
Difference Between Eat and Ate
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Compare with Definitions
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
Ate
(in the Philippines) an elder sister
My ate is always there for me
Eat
Light food or snacks
These make great party eats
Ate
Past tense of eat.
Eat
To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption.
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Ate
The goddess of criminal rashness and consequent punishment.
Eat
To take in and absorb as food
A plant that eats insects.
A cell that eats bacteria.
Ate
Past participle of eat
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.
Ate
(Philippines) An elder sister
Eat
To destroy, ravage, or use up by or as if by ingesting
"Covering news in the field eats money" (George F. Will).
Ate
(Philippines) A respectful title or form of address for an older woman.
Eat
To erode or corrode
Waves that ate away the beach.
An acid that eats the surface of a machine part.
Ate
The preterit of Eat.
Eat
To produce by eating
Moths ate holes in our sweaters.
Ate
The goddess of mischievous folly; also, in later poets, the goddess of vengeance.
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).
Ate
Goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment
Eat
(Informal) To bother or annoy
What's eating him?.
Eat
Vulgar slang To perform cunnilingus or anilingus on. Often used with out.
Eat
To consume food.
Eat
To have or take a meal.
Eat
To exercise a consuming or eroding effect
A drill that ate away at the rock.
Exorbitant expenses that were eating into profits.
Eat
To cause persistent annoyance or distress
"How long will it be before the frustration eats at you?" (Howard Kaplan).
Eat
To ingest; to be ingested.
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?
Eat
(intransitive) To consume a meal.
What time do we eat this evening?
Eat
To be eaten.
It's a soup that eats like a meal.
Eat
To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed (typically as "eat healthy" or "eat good").
Eat
To use up.
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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