eating away

Verb

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

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To physically corrode or erode (something) gradually.
   • The river bank had been eaten away over the years by the flood water.

   Synonyms:

   begnaw

2. (figuratively, idiomatic, transitive) To destroy (something) gradually by an ongoing process.
   • At your Table I vvill proue / If I can eate avvay my loue.1602, [John or Joshua Cooke], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, wherein is Shewed How a Man may Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad. […], London: […] Mathew Lawe, […], →OCLC; reprinted as How a Man may Choose a...

   Synonyms:

   corrode, erode

3. (figuratively, idiomatic, specifically, transitive) Chiefly followed by at: of a circumstance, incident, etc.: to cause (someone) to feel guilty, troubled, or worried; to bother (see eat away at).
   • The guilt of having lied was eating away at him.