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. (informal) To overwhelm or consume someone.
   • 2006, Lora Leigh, Megan's Mark, Berkley Sensation (2006), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     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 (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. (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.

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

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

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

     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 (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.

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

     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!, Silhouette Books (1996), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

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

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

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

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