20 CRUCIAL English verbs for eating | Advanced vocabulary for daily conversation

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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.