Dictionary

eat up en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive) To consume completely.
   • That, as one of my more sceptical industry insiders put it, is because there is a reluctance to commit funds to any of these plans - and we can put the blame firmly on the fact that HS2 is eating up £7bn per year for the whole term of this parliament. 2026 March 18, Christian Wolmar, “Wales sets example with long-term rail strategy”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 43:
   • He was so hungry that he ate up everything on his plate.
   • Dinner is served. Eat up!
2. (figuratively, slang, transitive) To cause (someone) to obsess; to figuratively consume (someone).
   • His anger has been eating him up.
3. (figuratively, transitive) To subtract, use up.
   • The powerful car ate up the miles. 1934, Frank Richards, The Magnet: The Mystery of the Vaults:
   • His behavior has eaten up all the goodwill we felt towards him.
4. (figuratively, informal, transitive) To accept or believe entirely, immediately, and without questioning.
   • She ate up everything that her image consultant said.
5. (slang, transitive) To acclaim or praise (someone or something); to consume (absorb information).
   • There are a number of subsidiary plots and characters that don't ring entirely true, and the ending is straight out of “The Perils of Pauline,” but I ate it all up anyway, because in the last analysis the opera has a kind of honest, disarming sentimentality. 1977 November 13, Robert Sherman, “Beguiling ‘Devil's Disciple’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025:
   • Without thinking much about “Dead To Me,” I ate it all up quickly during this quarantine time. I love it so much. It’s short, zippy, interesting and twisty without ever being complicated. Is there anything else in this vein that you can recommend? 2020 June 9, Margaret Lyons, quoting Priya, “What Should I Watch After I’ve Binged ‘Dead to Me’?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Jun 2020:
   • When I was 13 years old and very ill in a hospital, my father gave me a book about a man who went around the world, a Czech . . . . I did not read that book, I ate, I ate it up. I decided then, I too will go around the world, whether by bicycle or boat or on my belly like a snake. 1992 January 9, John Balzar, quoting Michael Poboronchook, “Russians Lose Their Country on Way to New World […]”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025:
   • They eat up every book he puts out.
   • Onstage at the fund-raiser beside Mr. Obama and Jimmy Kimmel, Mr. Biden laughed along, cracked a joke or two, and slammed the Supreme Court. The audience ate it up. 2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2024:
6. (US, informal, of children or pets, transitive) To find something to be very cute.
   • You're so cute, I could just eat you up!
7. (figuratively, slang, transitive) To go quickly on a route.
   • You're gonna have to eat up the whole way there.
   • We ate up the road to Pennsylvania.
8. (slang, transitive) To be very good at; to succeed at; to smash. (Compare eat and leave no crumbs.)
   • One fan shared a snippet from the music video wherein Jungkook and Han So-hee are drowning in water. Despite the catastrophic situation, the lovers are squabbling with each other. The fan commented: “The laundromat cause they ate that up”. 2023 July 14, Anwaya Mane, ““THEY ATE THAT UP”: BTS’ Jungkook’s fans lavish praise on Bangtan’s maknae and Han So-hee’s crackling chemistry in SEVEN MV”, in Sportskeeda:
9. (informal, slang) To completely dominate someone else, especially with a comeback or clapback.
   • Girl, you ate him up!

Forms

Coordinates

drink up

Relateds

eat something up with a spoon · chow down

Translations (26)

pl dojeść (consume completely) · pl wchłaniać (accept or believe entirely) · cmn 吃光 (consume completely) · pl wchłonąć (accept or believe entirely) · pl schrupać (find to be cute) · fi syödä loppuun (consume completely) · grc κατεσθίω (consume completely) · es comerse con patatas (accept or believe entirely) · mhr авызлаш (consume completely) · ru дое́сть (consume completely) · pl dojadać (consume completely) · de zusammenessen (consume completely) · pl wyjadać (consume completely) · pl chrupać (find to be cute) · fi nielaista (accept or believe entirely) · pt engolir (accept or believe entirely) · fr dévorer (consume completely) · ru съесть (consume completely) · es comerse con patatas (find to be cute) · hu megeszik (consume completely) · de aufessen (consume completely) · es comerse (consume completely) · la exedō (consume completely) · pl wyjeść (consume completely) · ja 平らげる (consume completely) · es tragarse (accept or believe entirely)