Idiom
hoover up
Meaning
To consume (food or drink) quickly, especially by taking it into the mouth directly from the plate rather than using cutlery.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He hoovered up his soup in seconds.”
“After skipping lunch, she hoovered up the pasta straight from the plate without even using a fork.”
“The starving hikers, having eaten nothing for two days, hoovered up every last crumb of bread from the tin, their manners forgotten.”
Examples
simple
“He hoovered up his soup in seconds.”
contextual
“After skipping lunch, she hoovered up the pasta straight from the plate without even using a fork.”
complex
“The starving hikers, having eaten nothing for two days, hoovered up every last crumb of bread from the tin, their manners forgotten.”
Origin
See hoover.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated