Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Eat \Eat\ ([=e]t), v. t. [imp. {Ate} ([=a]t; 277), Obsolescent &
   Colloq. {Eat} ([e^]t); p. p. {Eaten} ([=e]t"'n), Obs. or
   Colloq. {Eat} ([e^]t); p. pr. & vb. n. {Eating}.] [OE. eten,
   AS. etan; akin to OS. etan, OFries. eta, D. eten, OHG. ezzan,
   G. essen, Icel. eta, Sw. ["a]ta, Dan. [ae]de, Goth. itan, Ir.
   & Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. [root]6.
   Cf. {Etch}, {Fret} to rub, {Edible}.]
   1. To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially
      of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. ``To eat grass as
      oxen.'' --Dan. iv. 25.

            They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. --Ps.
                                                  cvi. 28.

            The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.
                                                  --Gen. xli.
                                                  20.

            The lion had not eaten the carcass.   --1 Kings
                                                  xiii. 28.

            With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the
            junkets eat.                          --Milton.

            The island princes overbold Have eat our substance.
                                                  --Tennyson.

            His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
                                                  --Thackeray.

   2. To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a
      cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to
      cause to disappear.

   {To eat humble pie}. See under {Humble}.

   {To eat of} (partitive use). ``Eat of the bread that can not
      waste.'' --Keble.

   {To eat one's words}, to retract what one has said. (See the
      Citation under {Blurt}.)

   {To eat out}, to consume completely. ``Eat out the heart and
      comfort of it.'' --Tillotson.

   {To eat the wind out of a vessel} (Naut.), to gain slowly to
      windward of her.

   Syn: To consume; devour; gnaw; corrode.

Humble \Hum"ble\, a. [Compar. {Humbler}; superl. {Humblest}.]
   [F., fr. L. humilis on the ground, low, fr. humus the earth,
   ground. See {Homage}, and cf. {Chameleon}, {Humiliate}.]
   1. Near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or
      magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; as, a humble
      cottage.

            THy humble nest built on the ground.  --Cowley.

   2. Thinking lowly of one's self; claiming little for one's
      self; not proud, arrogant, or assuming; thinking one's
      self ill-deserving or unworthy, when judged by the demands
      of God; lowly; waek; modest.

            God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the
            humble.                               --Jas. iv. 6.

            She should be humble who would please. --Prior.

            Without a humble imitation of the divine Author of
            our . . . religion we can never hope to be a happy
            nation.                               --Washington.

   {Humble plant} (Bot.), a species of sensitive plant, of the
      genus {Mimosa} ({M. sensitiva}).

   {To eat humble pie}, to endure mortification; to submit or
      apologize abjectly; to yield passively to insult or
      humilitation; -- a phrase derived from a pie made of the
      entrails or humbles of a deer, which was formerly served
      to servants and retainers at a hunting feast. See
      {Humbles}. --Halliwell. --Thackeray.