eat away
/it‿əˈweɪ/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.01 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Chiefly followed by at: of a circumstance, incident, etc.: to cause (someone) to feel guilty, troubled, or worried; to bother (see eat away at).
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The river bank had been eaten away over the years by the flood water."
- "To eate avvay dead fleſh, take Stubbe-vvort, and folde it vp in a red Docke leafe, or red VVort leafe, and ſo roſte it in the hot embers and lay it hot to any ſore, and it vvill fret avvay all the dead fleſh; […]"
- "The wearing away of rock is the work partly of the atmosphere and partly of water. The action of the atmosphere is chemical, and eats away the rock as rust eats away iron."
- "The zinc electrode has a positive charge because it has lost electrons to the carbon electrode. This positive charge attracts the negative ions (SO₄) from the sulfuric acid. The negative ions combine with the zinc to form zinc sulfate. This action causes the zinc electrode to be eaten away. […] The process of the zinc being eaten away and the sulfuric acid changing to hydrogen and zinc sulfate is the cause of the cell discharging."
- "At your Table I vvill proue / If I can eate avvay my loue."
- "[T]hus does politeneſs ſport vvith truth, and eating avvay the ſincerity and humanity natural to man, produce the fine gentleman."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /it‿əˈweɪ/
- British English: /iːt‿əˈweɪ/