Eat away at
Today’s English expression is to “eat away at” something. Believe it or not, this phrasal verb has two very different meanings. In the way I used it today, it means to gradually consume or destroy something.
When we use “eat away at,” we can sometimes actually mean eating. And that’s how you heard it in today’s lesson. I was talking about how the shipwreck Endurance is very well preserved on the floor off the Antarctic coast. It has been there for 107 years!
If you drop a wooden ship to the bottom of the ocean in most parts of the world, and if you leave it there and come back a hundred years later, you’ll find that the ship is mostly broken down, destroyed, collapsed, deteriorated. That’s because in many parts of the ocean, there are wood-eating worms that eat away at wooden shipwrecks. They’re called “shipworms.”
In this case, the shipworms are eating the wood. They eat away at any wooden structure. It might take them a couple of years, but they will eventually destroy any wooden structure you drop down in the ocean. In fact, a pier in San Francisco collapsed into the bay because shipworms had eaten away at the footings of the pier.
To “eat away at” is to gradually consume or destroy something, and in this case, the shipworms do it by, literally , eating. It’s not just in the water; this can happen on land, too. Mice can eat away at the wiring in your house. Termites can eat away at the wooden beams in your house. Moths can eat away at clothing or furniture. Mold can eat away at your drywall. In all of these cases, small little things are eating something huge, and eventually making that big thing smaller or weaker. With all of these things that can eat away at our homes, it’s a wonder any of our houses are still standing!
With this imagery in mind, let’s transition away from the physical world. Bank fees can eat away at your savings. I don’t know about where you live, but banks here sometimes charge monthly fees just to have an account open. I don’t have an account like that because it’s not worth it . But some people pay five, ten, or even twenty dollars per month just to have an account open.
Banks also charge fees if you accidentally spend more money than you have in your account; that can be $35 each time. If you don’t have a lot saved up, and if you’re not careful, bank fees can really eat away at your savings. That means, these bank fees can gradually make your savings smaller. They’re like little shipworms in your bank account, consuming money that should be yours.
How much did you work on your last vacation? I suspect more than a few of you did a little bit of work. And look, this is 2022, that’s bound to happen. But if you’re not careful, all these calls and e-mails can eat away at your vacation. Work can gradually consume and destroy your vacation. You answer one e-mail, guess what happens? They e-mail you back. If you don’t turn off notifications, it might be tempting to respond to a group chat. Then someone realizes you’re working on vacation and they call. If you’re not careful, all this can eat away at your vacation. It can gradually destroy and deteriorate your vacation.
Have you ever been invited to speak at a meeting, or on a webcast, for just five minutes? Would you rather be at the beginning of the webcast or at the end? I’d rather be at the beginning. If I’m scheduled to speak last, guess what happens? Other people take more than their scheduled time, and the eat away at the time available for me to do my presentation. I’m too nice to call them shipworms, but little by little, they consume and destroy the time available for me to talk, at least if I’m scheduled to go last.
JR’s song of the week
We’re not going to eat away at the time available for JR’s song of the week, so let’s pivot to that now. JR has selected “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service. This one was popular in 2006 and 2007. The songwriter, Ben Gibbard, said it was the first positive love song he had ever written; he was used to writing songs about getting his heart broken.
This one is about someone who writes a song for his girlfriend, who is a singer herself and is always on the road touring. “They will see us waving from such great heights,” the chorus goes.
See you next time!
And that is all for today’s Plain English. I mentioned on Monday that I’d post images of those shipwrecks we talked about. Well another thing we post is the song of the week, we post the link to Spotify. So you can click right through and listen to the song. Check that out at PlainEnglish.com/Facebook .
This was Plain English lesson number 459, so remember the full lesson is at PlainEnglish.com/459. That includes the video, and today’s video lesson is about a nice little way to describe people who are similar to you. I’m not giving you any more hints; if you’re on the web site, you know what it is, since you’ve seen it. But watch that video to learn how to describe people who are similar to you.
That’s all for now; we’ll be back on Monday with a new lesson. See you then!
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
