ate someone alive

Verb

eat someone alive (third-person singular simple present eats someone alive, present participle eating someone alive, simple past ate someone alive, past participle eaten someone alive)

1. To consume a prey animal that is still alive, as many predators do.
   • "This's nuts," his father said, but he spoke hollowly, with no strength. "If you go wandering around out there, you'll be eaten alive."
     "No more than the coyote ate me alive when I got out of the cell," David said. "The danger isn't if I go out there; it's if we all stay in here."1996, Stephen King, Desperation
   1. (informal) To bite repeatedly.
      • You may find that in June it rains so hard the streets are filled with a foot of mud and the mosquitoes eat people alive, but in October the place is beautiful.1992 February, Mark Jenkins, “Beyond the Border: A Primer for Backpacking Abroad”, in Backpacker
2. (informal) To overwhelm or consume someone.
   • She shook her head wearily, the guilt eating her alive.2006, Lora Leigh, Megan's Mark, Berkley Sensation, published 2006, →ISBN
3. (informal) To criticize harshly or rebuke strongly.
   • However, the album never even made it onto the record charts, and the critics ate her alive.2001, Mark Bego, Cher: If You Believe, Taylor Trade Publishing, published 2004, →ISBN, page 141

   Synonyms:

   criticize