eat someone alive

eat someone alive (third-person singular simple present eats someone alive, present participle eating someone alive, simple past ate someone alive, past participle eaten someone alive)

1. To consume a prey animal that is still alive, as many predators do.
   • 1996, Stephen King, Desperation:

     "This's nuts," his father said, but he spoke hollowly, with no strength. "If you go wandering around out there, you'll be eaten alive."
     "No more than the coyote ate me alive when I got out of the cell," David said. "The danger isn't if I go out there; it's if we all stay in here."

   1. (informal, of insects) To bite repeatedly.
      • 1992 February, Mark Jenkins, “Beyond the Border: A Primer for Backpacking Abroad”, in Backpacker:

        You may find that in June it rains so hard the streets are filled with a foot of mud and the mosquitoes eat people alive, but in October the place is beautiful.

      • 1996, Sandra Steffen, Not Before Marriage!‎^[1], Silhouette Books, published 1996, →ISBN:

        “Let's go into the house before these mosquitoes eat us alive.”

      • 2002, Jack Williamson, Dragon's Island and Other Stories, Five Star, published 2002, →ISBN, page 157:

        I had to keep close to the riverbank, under the edge of the jungle, with mosquitoes eating me alive.

2. (informal) To overwhelm or consume someone.
   • 2006, Lora Leigh, Megan's Mark‎^[2], Berkley Sensation, published 2006, →ISBN:

     She shook her head wearily, the guilt eating her alive.

   • 2007, Lynn Anderson, They Smell Like Sheep, Volume 2: Leading with the Heart of a Shepherd, Howard Books, published 2007, →ISBN, page 169:

     Eventually, Randy moved through the shock and began to see that anger was eating him alive and poisoning his life.

   • 2009, Moira Rogers, Sanctuary Lost, Samhain Publishing, Ltd., published 2009, →ISBN, page 38:

     "How's Abby holding up?"
     "She almost isn't." Keith sounded exhausted. "The guilt's eating her alive. […]

   • 2015 January 18, Charles M. Blow, “How expensive is it to be poor [print version: International New York Times, 20 January 2015, p. 7]”, in The New York Times:

     [M]any low-income people are "unbanked" (not served by a financial institution), and thus nearly eaten alive by exorbitant fees.

3. (informal) To criticize harshly or rebuke strongly.
   • 2001, Mark Bego, Cher: If You Believe, Taylor Trade Publishing, published 2004, →ISBN, page 141:

     However, the album never even made it onto the record charts, and the critics ate her alive.

   • 2010 October 10, Evelyn McDonnell, “Book Review: 'Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution' by Sara Marcus”, in Los Angeles Times:

     The media ate them alive. Sympathetic coverage, like Emily White's 1992 L.A. Weekly cover story, devolved into patronizing, parasitic parodies of "pink, frilly bedrooms."

   • 2011, Stephanie Parker-Weaver, Rebirth: "A Breast Cancer Journey of Many; Survival of Few": A Mississippi Civil Rights Activist's Biggest Battle How She Beat the Odds, Xlibris, published 2011, →ISBN, page 283:

     For nearly the entire full four years of Frank's administration, the local media ate him alive for even the slightest misstep.

• (criticize harshly or rebuke strongly): See Thesaurus:reprehend

• ate someone alive