eat someone alive

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word eat someone alive. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word eat someone alive, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say eat someone alive in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word eat someone alive you have here. The definition of the word eat someone alive will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofeat someone alive, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

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.
    • 1996, Stephen King, Desperation:
      "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."
    1. (informal, of insects) To bite repeatedly.
      • 1992 February, Mark Jenkins, “Beyond the Border: A Primer for Backpacking Abroad”, in Backpacker:
        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.
      • 1996, Sandra Steffen, Not Before Marriage!‎, Silhouette Books, published 1996, →ISBN:
        “Let's go into the house before these mosquitoes eat us alive.”
      • 2002, Jack Williamson, Dragon's Island and Other Stories, Five Star, published 2002, →ISBN, page 157:
        I had to keep close to the riverbank, under the edge of the jungle, with mosquitoes eating me alive.
  2. (informal) To overwhelm or consume someone.
    • 2006, Lora Leigh, Megan's Mark‎, Berkley Sensation, published 2006, →ISBN:
      She shook her head wearily, the guilt eating her alive.
    • 2007, Lynn Anderson, They Smell Like Sheep, Volume 2: Leading with the Heart of a Shepherd, Howard Books, published 2007, →ISBN, page 169:
      Eventually, Randy moved through the shock and began to see that anger was eating him alive and poisoning his life.
    • 2009, Moira Rogers, Sanctuary Lost, Samhain Publishing, Ltd., published 2009, →ISBN, page 38:
      "How's Abby holding up?"
      "She almost isn't." Keith sounded exhausted. "The guilt's eating her alive. […]
    • 2015 January 18, Charles M. Blow, “How expensive is it to be poor [print version: International New York Times, 20 January 2015, p. 7]”, in The New York Times:
      [M]any low-income people are "unbanked" (not served by a financial institution), and thus nearly eaten alive by exorbitant fees.
  3. (informal) To criticize harshly or rebuke strongly.
    • 2001, Mark Bego, Cher: If You Believe, Taylor Trade Publishing, published 2004, →ISBN, page 141:
      However, the album never even made it onto the record charts, and the critics ate her alive.
    • 2010 October 10, Evelyn McDonnell, “Book Review: 'Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution' by Sara Marcus”, in Los Angeles Times:
      The media ate them alive. Sympathetic coverage, like Emily White's 1992 L.A. Weekly cover story, devolved into patronizing, parasitic parodies of "pink, frilly bedrooms."
    • 2011, Stephanie Parker-Weaver, Rebirth: "A Breast Cancer Journey of Many; Survival of Few": A Mississippi Civil Rights Activist's Biggest Battle How She Beat the Odds, Xlibris, published 2011, →ISBN, page 283:
      For nearly the entire full four years of Frank's administration, the local media ate him alive for even the slightest misstep.

Synonyms

Translations

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia