2. As the ending of a verb, it means to make, to cause, to
act, etc.; as, to propitiate (to make propitious); to
animate (to give life to).
3. As a noun suffix, it marks the agent; as, curate,
delegate. It also sometimes marks the office or dignity;
as, tribunate.
4. In chemistry it is used to denote the salts formed from
those acids whose names end -ic (excepting binary or
halogen acids); as, sulphate from sulphuric acid, nitrate
from nitric acid, etc. It is also used in the case of
certain basic salts.
They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. --Ps.
cvi. 28.
The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.
--Gen. xli.
20.
The lion had not eaten the carcass. --1 Kings
xiii. 28.
With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the
junkets eat. --Milton.
The island princes overbold Have eat our substance.
--Tennyson.
His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
--Thackeray.
2. 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.
{To eat humble pie}. See under {Humble}.
{To eat of} (partitive use). ``Eat of the bread that can not
waste.'' --Keble.
{To eat one's words}, to retract what one has said. (See the
Citation under {Blurt}.)
{To eat out}, to consume completely. ``Eat out the heart and
comfort of it.'' --Tillotson.
{To eat the wind out of a vessel} (Naut.), to gain slowly to
windward of her.
Syn: To consume; devour; gnaw; corrode.