eats

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of eat.

   He eats lunch at his desk most days.

   A growing teenager eats enormous amounts of food.

   Note

   The form a singular subject calls for, and it carries every sense of eat, not just the mealtime one. With a thing as subject it often means using up (the repair bill eats up our savings), and programmers say a handler eats an exception when it swallows it silently. The same spelling is also the casual noun for food. The verb follows its subject (she eats), while the noun follows some (some eats).

2. 2
   nouncolloquialplural

   Food, spoken of casually as something to eat or share at a meal.

   The diner on Fifth is known for cheap eats and big portions.

   We packed plenty of eats for the long drive to the coast.

   Similarfood, grub, snacks, chow, nosh

   Note

   This word exists only in the plural. There is no single eat, and it takes plural agreement: the eats were good, not the eats was good. Its natural partners are some and a casual verb of fetching, as in get some eats or grab some eats. It belongs to relaxed talk among friends; in formal writing, food or a meal does the job.

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