"eat away at" meaning in English

See eat away at in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: eats away at [present, singular, third-person], eating away at [participle, present], ate away at [past], eaten away at [participle, past]
Etymology: From eat away + at. Etymology templates: {{af|en|eat away|at|nocat=1}} eat away + at Head templates: {{en-verb|eat<,,ate,eaten> away at}} eat away at (third-person singular simple present eats away at, present participle eating away at, simple past ate away at, past participle eaten away at)
  1. (transitive) To erode. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-eat_away_at-en-verb-WchFW7ku
  2. (transitive) To consume or use up, erode or wear away gradually. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-eat_away_at-en-verb-71lK2UWH Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs with particle (at), English phrasal verbs with particle (away) Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 5 84 12 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs with particle (at): 10 71 19 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs with particle (away): 9 73 18
  3. (transitive) To cause to feel uneasy, troubled, worried, guilty, or vexed; to bother about something. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-eat_away_at-en-verb-02NYMMtS

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for eat away at meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "eat away",
        "3": "at",
        "nocat": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "eat away + at",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From eat away + at.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "eats away at",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "eating away at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ate away at",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "eaten away at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "eat<,,ate,eaten> away at"
      },
      "expansion": "eat away at (third-person singular simple present eats away at, present participle eating away at, simple past ate away at, past participle eaten away at)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The river is eating away at the river bank."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To erode."
      ],
      "id": "en-eat_away_at-en-verb-WchFW7ku",
      "links": [
        [
          "erode",
          "erode"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To erode."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "5 84 12",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "10 71 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs with particle (at)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 73 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs with particle (away)",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The expenses ate away at our profits."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To consume or use up, erode or wear away gradually."
      ],
      "id": "en-eat_away_at-en-verb-71lK2UWH",
      "links": [
        [
          "consume",
          "consume"
        ],
        [
          "use up",
          "use up"
        ],
        [
          "erode",
          "erode"
        ],
        [
          "wear away",
          "wear away"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To consume or use up, erode or wear away gradually."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Not confessing that I had stolen the money ate away at me until I could no longer sleep."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause to feel uneasy, troubled, worried, guilty, or vexed; to bother about something."
      ],
      "id": "en-eat_away_at-en-verb-02NYMMtS",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To cause to feel uneasy, troubled, worried, guilty, or vexed; to bother about something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "eat away at"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs with particle (at)",
    "English phrasal verbs with particle (away)",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "eat away",
        "3": "at",
        "nocat": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "eat away + at",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From eat away + at.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "eats away at",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "eating away at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ate away at",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "eaten away at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "eat<,,ate,eaten> away at"
      },
      "expansion": "eat away at (third-person singular simple present eats away at, present participle eating away at, simple past ate away at, past participle eaten away at)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The river is eating away at the river bank."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To erode."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "erode",
          "erode"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To erode."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The expenses ate away at our profits."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To consume or use up, erode or wear away gradually."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "consume",
          "consume"
        ],
        [
          "use up",
          "use up"
        ],
        [
          "erode",
          "erode"
        ],
        [
          "wear away",
          "wear away"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To consume or use up, erode or wear away gradually."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Not confessing that I had stolen the money ate away at me until I could no longer sleep."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To cause to feel uneasy, troubled, worried, guilty, or vexed; to bother about something."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To cause to feel uneasy, troubled, worried, guilty, or vexed; to bother about something."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "eat away at"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.