eaten

1. 1
   verb

   Past participle of eat.

   By the time help arrived, the survivors had eaten the last of their rations.

   Half the orchard had been eaten by deer over the winter.

   Note

   The participle keeps the -en ending inherited from Old English eten, which is eat plus -en. It follows have in the perfect (they had eaten) and be in the passive (the crop was eaten). The simple past, ate, stands on its own without an auxiliary. With up, it carries the sense of using something entirely, as in savings eaten up by rent.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having been taken in and consumed as food.

   By midnight the once-full buffet looked thoroughly eaten and picked over.

   He pushed his half-eaten meal aside and reached for the wine.

   Similarconsumed

   Oppositeuneaten, untouched

   Note

   An adjective that does most of its work in compounds: half-eaten, moth-eaten, worm-eaten. Before a noun the compound takes a hyphen (a half-eaten meal). Standing alone, the adjective usually wants a modifier, as in thoroughly eaten. It is gradable, so more eaten and most eaten are possible. Still, it grows from the past participle and rarely strays far from it.

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