Word.ws English Dictionary

eat the onion

eat the onion verb: used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see eat, the, onion.

Verb (1)

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

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see eat, the, onion.
  2. (colloquial, idiomatic) To be fooled by a work of satire, particularly in the satirical newspaper The Onion.
    • No, the original plan for Chicago's street layout was not scribbled on the back of a napkin by an ancestor of Roger Ebert; you just ate the onion.

Verb (2) capitalized: eat The Onion

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

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of eat the onion

Forms of eat the onion

third-person singular presenteats the onion
present participleeating the onion
pastate the onion
past participleeaten the onion
alternative formeat The Onion
third-person singular presenteats The Onion
present participleeating The Onion
pastate The Onion
past participleeaten The Onion

Questions about eat the onion

What does eat the onion mean?
Eat the onion means used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see eat, the, onion.
What part of speech is eat the onion?
Eat the onion is a verb.
What is the past tense of eat the onion?
The past tense of eat the onion is ate the onion.

Words near eat the onion in the dictionary

  1. eat someone's lunch
  2. eat the baby
  3. eat the bread of idleness
  4. eat the leek
  5. eat the mic
  6. eat the onion
  7. eat the rich
  8. eat the seed corn
  9. eat to live, not live to eat
  10. eat to windward
  11. eat twat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eat the onion (page history and authors); eat The Onion (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.

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Cite this entry: “eat the onion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eat_the_onion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.