Verbs for Food and Eating

6 years ago

There are some specific verbs we use to talk about food and eating, such as 'run out of', 'cut down on salt, fat, sugar, etc.' and 'polish it off', wolf it down, squeeze a lemon, sprinkle salt and spices on top, salad dressing, toss the salad, slice up some turkey meat, chop up some vegetables, let it simmer, bring it to a boil, pour some tea, coffee, wine, etc.; take a second helping.

Here are some very useful phrasal verbs for food and eating, and some examples. Try to make your own examples! It's the best way to learn them - by using them right away. :)

Cut down
If you cut down on sugar, you’ll be eating less calories.

To snack on
To eat something small between meals when you are too hungry to wait. Example: When we snack on something like fruit or a piece of pastry

To live on something
Eat so much of something and so often that you practically feed on it alone and nothing else. Example: Some teenagers could live on cereals and milk!

Wolf it down
Eat it all. Example: My children will wolf down these hotdogs I made.

To go well with something
If two different foods combine well, they go well together. For example, apple cobbler goes well with vanilla ice-cream.

To run out of something
There’s no more left of it and you need to buy more

To chop up
Cut something in pieces, like meat.

Pig out on something
Eat too much of some specific food – like potato chips

To polish it off
To have the last of some food that was served.

Feel free to ask questions or write your own sentences and comments here and I will be happy to provide corrections for you :)