Word.ws English Dictionary

eats away

eats away is the third-person singular simple present indicative of eat away.

Meaning of eat 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.

Questions about eats away

What is eats away the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Eats away is the third-person singular simple present indicative of eat away.

Words near eats away in the dictionary

  1. eats
  2. eats an elephant one bite at a time
  3. eats and leaves no crumbs
  4. eats and runs
  5. eats ass
  6. eats away
  7. eats away at
  8. eats beaver
  9. eats boiled crow
  10. eats cookie
  11. eats crow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eats away (page history and authors); eat away (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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