eat one's young
eat one's young verb: to betray a constituent or charge out of self-serving interests or desperation.
Verb
eat one's young (third-person singular simple present eats one's young, present participle eating one's young, simple past ate one's young, past participle eaten one's young)
- To betray a constituent or charge out of self-serving interests or desperation.
- With bankruptcy looming, the corporation eventually began eating its young; massive layoffs were announced, and all employee benefits and bonuses were suspended.
Forms of eat one's young
| third-person singular present | eats one's young |
|---|---|
| present participle | eating one's young |
| past | ate one's young |
| past participle | eaten one's young |
Origin of eat one's young
The term is derived from the zoological phenomenon of animals killing and consuming their own young for sustenance.
Questions about eat one's young
- What does eat one's young mean?
- Eat one's young means to betray a constituent or charge out of self-serving interests or desperation.
- What part of speech is eat one's young?
- Eat one's young is a verb.
- What is the past tense of eat one's young?
- The past tense of eat one's young is ate one's young.
Words near eat one's young in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: eat one's young (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-eat one's young.ogg.
Cite this entry: “eat one's young.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eat_one%27s_young. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.