ENGLISH
REFERENCE

eat up

phr. v..
B1 Intermediate Oxford

phr. v.. to finish all of your food; you use this when you want someone to eat everything on their plate.

phr. v.. to consume a portion of food completely; often used in the imperative to encourage children or guests to finish a meal.


SIMPLE

Eat up your vegetables before you have dessert.

CONTEXTUAL

The kids were so hungry after swimming that they ate up their entire lunch in minutes.

COMPLEX

The rising costs of raw materials continue to eat up the company's profit margins, forcing a complete rethink of their pricing strategy.

Particles
up
Separability
optional
Pattern
eat (+ object) + up / eat + up + object
Usage

often used as an imperative or with a direct object representing the food being consumed.

Teaching tip

highlight the 'completion' sense of the particle 'up', similar to 'finish up' or 'clean up', which implies doing something until it is finished.

Pitfall

You must eat up it.You must eat it up.when using a pronoun like 'it', the pronoun must go between the verb and the particle.

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