eat someone out of house and home

English

Etymology

Appears in The Second Shepherds' Play by The Wakefield Master (1400-1450), later used by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564 (baptised) – 1616) in his play Henry IV, Part 2 (c. 1596–1599): see the quotation.

Pronunciation

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Verb

eat someone out of house and home (third-person singular simple present eats someone out of house and home, present participle eating someone out of house and home, simple past ate someone out of house and home, past participle eaten someone out of house and home)

1. (idiomatic) To consume so much of someone's store of food that little or none is left for the owner.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     [H]e hath eaten me out of houſe and home, he hath put all my ſubſtance into that fat belly of his, but I will haue ſome of it out againe, or I will ride thee a nights like the mare.

Related terms

• out of house and home

Translations

to consume so much of someone's store of food

• German: die Haare vom Kopf fressen, die Haare vom Kopf essen
• Hungarian: kieszi a vagyonából