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." "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 overbold Have eat our substance." "His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages."