verb
1.
to take in as food
they quickly ate a light breakfast
Synonyms: consume, devour, feed (on), ingest, meal, partake (of), take; compare consume 5
Related Word: banquet, feast, gormandize; eat up, gobble (up or down), gorge (on), ||mop (up), polish off, scoff; breakfast, dine, lunch, nosh, snack, sup; mouth, ||muckamuck; nibble, pick
Idioms: break bread, get away with, have ( or take) a bite, take nourishment, ||put on the feed bag
2.
Synonyms: consume 1, devour, eat up, exhaust, use up
3.
to consume gradually
the acid ate the surface of the copper
Synonyms: bite, corrode, eat away, erode, gnaw, scour, wear (away)
Related Word: nibble (away); consume, decompose, disintegrate, dissolve