Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to advanced English lessons with Harry where I
try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. I help you with all aspects
of your grammar, improving your vocabulary. And how to use adjectives, verbs and nouns in
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So as I said, this is an advanced English lesson. And it's an advanced English lesson where I'm
going to give you 20 Yep, 20 verbs relating to eating and drinking. So these are verbs
that you can use or you can use to describe the way you or somebody else eats and drinks. Okay,
so there are lots of them. Some of them are informal, some of them are a little bit more
formal. So what I'll do is I'll give you the verb, and I'll tell you what type of food that
it refers to or what eating action refers to. So advanced English and advanced English lesson 20
English verbs relating to eating and drinking. And let's face it, we all enjoy eating and drinking.
So if we eat and drink a lot, or a little, these verbs will help you to understand and explain it.
So simple one to bite. Well, we bite. Well, we can bite our nails. Yeah, if you're sitting there
and you're... you're a bit worried you bite your nails. But you bite into your food. So we use that
type of preposition to bite into your food or... So if you see a piece of cake, you like to bite a
big chunk of cake so you get a nice taste and get a nice hit from the sugar in the cake. To bite.
To bolt down your food. Well, this refers to eating food very, very quickly. Bolt
is about speed. Okay, so when somebody bolts - or they used to describe a horse that runs
away - it means it runs very fast. So when you bolt down your food, you eat it without really
stopping to take a breath of air. Okay, and kids usually if they're in a hurry, and they want to
get out to play, they usually bolt down their food. And my mother was forever telling me,
It's okay, it's okay. They'll wait for you don't bolt down your food. You'll choke.
To chomp on something. Well, horses, chomp on grass. But humans can chomp as well. So
we chew the food several times. If you're eating something soft like a salad, you might chomp on
it because it's not... You're not taking big bites, you're chomping on the lettuce, you're
chomping on the scallions, you're chomping on the peppers, or the onions or the mushrooms, whatever
you've got in that particular salad. To champ on them. So to eat very slowly and precisely.
To choke down. Well, as I said before, when we talk about to bolt down, we use that preposition
down with a lot of these expressions because the food goes down. And if we try to eat it quickly,
then yeah, we can bolt down the food or in this case to choke down. So you're (gulp) yeah so
you're almost choking as you're eating the food. You tend to take very big bites, and therefore you
don't eat it properly and then there's a danger that you will choke or choke down on the food.
Now, a very informal word to demolish. Okay, so this often requires a bit of
help. So if there's a gang of young guys or girls and you produce a birthday cake,
they will demolish it very quickly. Means you put it on the table. And the next time you look,
there's nothing left. Wow, you demolished that cake very quickly. Or, as used to happen in my
house, you'd open a packet of biscuits, put them on the plate, as soon as you turn your back,
they're all gone. So the plate of biscuits was demolished. Meaning eaten very, very quickly.
The same way with the next verb to devour. Yeah, when somebody devours the food, they're either
very hungry, so they eat it very quickly. Or they really liked the taste that. For example,
the plate of biscuits, and particularly those with chocolate, they put them on the plate,
and then they devour them, like in five minutes or 10 minutes. So again, they're eaten very,
very quickly. And somebody might use the expression. Wow, you devoured those. Yeah,
well, you're really hungry. You couldn't wait. I mean, will you be able to eat your dinner later?
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Next one, again, quite informal to dig in. Now, we used to have this expression. 2, 4, 6, 8, dig in,
don't wait. So what it tells you is that you have perhaps this sort of a little buffet. You have the
guys from the football team sitting around the table, you just had a game and they're really
hungry. So you've as we would put on a big English or Irish fry, lots of sausages, lots of bacon,
black pudding. We put them in a couple of bowls and say, Okay, guys, 2, 4, 6, 8, dig in,
don't wait. And vroom, everybody's got their fork in their hand into the bowl. And then again,
everything is eaten very, very quickly. So to dig in means go on. Help yourself. Don't wait for me.
Don't wait for me to sit down, you're hungry. Just dig in and eat what you can, when you can. Okay,
so to dig in. And usually there's a big gang of people, well, then yes, everybody will dig
in. And you can't stand on ceremony because if you do, you're going to miss out and you
won't get a bite to eat. So dig in. So usually it's about eating food with great enthusiasm.
Now to force down, okay. So when you're force down something, it means that you're a little
bit or the person is a little bit reluctant to eat. So they have to force down the... the food
or the drink, perhaps because they've got a sore throat. Yeah, so they if they can't, or
it's painful to swallow, then they have to force down the food. But often if you're going to have
to take some medicine, and kids, let's face it, and even adults don't like taking medicine. So
you have to force it down. They feel like you're going to gag or you're going to vomit or be sick.
Yeah. So you're... have to eat even though you don't want to eat. So you're force down.
If you've been sick for a couple of days, and your friend asked you, Are you okay? You say,
Ah, yeah, look I haven't been well. Have you been eating? No, I've forced down some toast
but I really couldn't face anything else and maybe I'll have something to eat tomorrow. So to
force down means you're reluctant to eat because you don't feel well. But you know you have to.
The next you can use it with or without the preposition. So you can gobble your food or
gobble down your food. And that gobble is the sort of noise that farm house birds make like turkeys
or chickens or ducks or geese. They gobble the food. So kids love to gobble the food,
they eat it very quickly. They hardly stop for air and they eat and then gobble it
down. So it could be breakfast. It could be lunch, it could be dinner, it doesn't matter
what it is they just eat very quickly. Gobble, gobble gobble.Yeah, like turkeys and chickens.
And the same with the next verb to gulp or to gulp down. Again, with or without the preposition
down. To gulp down. Usually this relates to drink. Okay, so you've got a large cup of orange juice,
or a large glass of water or a cup of tea. Your parents might tell you, Okay,
guys, you have to drink with your food otherwise you won't feel so comfortable,
but don't gulp it down (gulp, gulp, gulp). So when you're in a real hurry to drink - perhaps
you want another glass of orange juice or you want another glass of coke - so you gulp down
the first one. And of course what happens when you gulp down the food, you get full of air and
then you start burping and belching all over the place. Yeah, so to gulp or gulp down your drink.
Also related to drink is the word to guzzle. Okay. So when you guzzle the drink,
whether it's water or minerals, or tea, or coffee it means to drink a lot and very quickly. Now,
we also use this word to guzzle when we talk about expensive cars that use a lot of petrol
or diesel. Wow, that car guzzles petrol. I mean, wow, I don't know how you fill it because you must
be filling it twice a week or three times a week. The price of oil today it must cost
you a fortune. So we use the word when we're relating to cars. But if we talk about people,
they guzzle the drink, it might not necessarily be to do with their water or tea. But you can get
somebody who has a ferocious and voracious appetite for beer so they can stand in the
bar and stand up to the bar and they could guzzle down several pints. So if somebody's been working
really hard or working out in the hot weather, they'll run in and they'll have two beers very,
very quickly. They will guzzle them down to quench their thirst
To munch. Well, we like to munch on biscuits, you know, you make a certain noise on num num when
you're eating biscuits. So you munch on biscuits. Or we munch on certain snacks.
So it's often a good idea to find out what do you like to munch on? Or when I'm watching
a movie on a Saturday night, I like to munch on a bag of chips. Okay, it's something that
gives you a nice crunch to it. So to munch on the Pringles. Yeah, you pop open that
tube of Pringles and within 10 minutes is all gone because you've munched them all.
To nibble. We nibble on things like cheese. Oh, I'd love to sit down now. A glass of wine and
just some nice French cheese. And I'd nibble on that all night. So we nibble on cheese. We nibble
on light snacks. Or if we're not so hungry, and we just fancy something to take the edge off our
appetite, then we'll just nibble on something light. Would you... Would you like something
to eat? Ah, look, no, I just... Have you got something small. I'll nibble on it, I don't
have a big appetite. Okay, so to nibble means to eat and take small bites small portions of food.
To peck at? Well, usually somebody pecks at their food a bit like a bird pecks with its beak. So
somebody pecks at their food when they are a little bit fussy. Okay, so kids can be fussy
eaters, and they don't like to eat vegetables, they don't like green or they don't like orange.
So they have a particular hatred of some type of vegetable. So it's very hard for you to get them
to eat. And you say, Ah, he's terrible. He is a... He is a very picky eater. He just pecks at
the vegetables, yeah, and then... But put it in a plate of chips of course, he'll eat them all.
But the vegetables, he just pecks at them. So when somebody pecks at the food, perhaps it's because
again, they have been ill for a while, they've lost a bit of their appetite. So they, they just
peck at something small. And then when they've had enough, they just push the plate to one side.
To pick at. So when we pick at something again, perhaps it's not so tasty.
Perhaps we don't like the smell. Perhaps we've got no appetite. So we just pick at our foods.
Sometimes when somebody is a bit depressed, you can sit see them, they're sitting at the table
with their head in their hands, they've got a fork in one hand, they're resting their chin,
on the other hand, and they're just picking at the food. Not really interested. Don't
even know what they're eating half of the time because the mind is on something else. So he's
just picking at his food. Or she broke up with a boyfriend three or four days ago, and she's
only been picking at her food ever since. Don't worry, she'll get over so to pick at something.
To savour. Well... Now, this is a nice word to use. When we savour our food, we really enjoy
it. We enjoy every last mouthful. Also some really delicious well cooked steak, we savour
every bite. It's your medium rare. Whichever way you like your steak melt in the mouth.
Very very savoury. So to savour your food means to enjoy the first, middle and the last bite.
To scoff your food. This is a very British verb to describe eating. To scoff means to
stuff it into your face as fast as you can so that nobody else can get it. He scoffed down all of the
sweets and he didn't offer any of them to his friends or his... his siblings. Yeah. To scoff.
Means to stuff the biscuits or cram the sweets into your mouth and (gulp) To scoff the food.
To snack on something. Literally means to take bites of small things. Yeah to snack during meals.
Often the doctor will tell you if you want to lose weight or you want to stop putting on weight,
you have to stop snacking between meals. You have to stop eating biscuits. You have to stop
eating other types of foods that are full of calories. If you need to snack on something,
snack on fruit, or stat... snack on some nuts that are healthy nuts,
not salted nuts, okay to snack on small bites to take the edge off your appetite.
To tuck in or to tuck into something. Again, a very British verb to use. So
we get a nice plate of our favourite food like a winter's day a plate of Shepherd's Pie and I
can't wait to tuck into it, particularly if I've made it myself my own recipe. Or
somebody will tell you well, there's some food for you there. It's a cold night,
just tuck in. And that will be you'll feel really good when you finish that yeah, okay,
so we like to tuck in to our breakfast, we like to enjoy our breakfast. We like
to tuck into a home-made meal so we enjoy eating it. So we take pleasure from eating.
And then finally to wolf or to wolf down the food. Literally means to eat like a wolf. Yeah,
so like a savage. So you wolf down the food. So you as if you haven't eaten for days or
even weeks. So kids when they come in from school or playing that football match or running around,
they can't wait. When's dinner? When's dinner? When's dinner? I'm hungry, I'm hungry,
I'm hungry. As soon as you put the food on the table before they've even taken a breath,
they wolf it down. So they eat it very quickly and are ready for more.
Okay, so there we have 20 verbs, 20 advanced verbs that you can use to describe eating and drinking.
Okay, so that useful. So you have to try and practise them. You won't use use them all,
but you will associate some of them with the action of your friend, your family,
and particularly your kids so try to use them.
This is Harry saying goodbye. Thanks for listening and join me for the next lesson.