To put food in your mouth, chew it, and swallow it.
From Old English 'etan', from Proto-Germanic '*etaną', with very ancient roots in Proto-Indo-European '*ed-' meaning 'to eat'. It is one of the oldest and most basic verbs in the language.
Because eating is so fundamental, the verb 'eat' has barely changed in thousands of years. We use it metaphorically all the time: 'eat up time', 'eat your words', 'this will eat at you'.
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