gobble up

English

Verb

gobble up (third-person singular simple present gobbles up, present participle gobbling up, simple past and past participle gobbled up)

1. (transitive) To consume [something] rapidly.
   • 1728, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady:

     supper gobbled up in haste

2. (by extension, figurative) To continually absorb or expand through annexation.

   The city grew over the years by gobbling up land around its limits.

Synonyms

• forsling

Translations

to consume rapidly

• French: goinfrer (fr)
• Icelandic: háma í sig, úða í sig, hakka í sig, spæna í sig, hesthúsa
• Latin: tuburcinor
• Russian: поглощать (ru) impf (pogloščatʹ)
• Spanish: devorar (es)
• Swedish: glufsa i sig (sv)

to continually absorb or expand through annexation