Definition
To consume so much of someone's store of food that little or none is left for the owner.
Origins
Appears in The Second Shepherds' Play by The Wakefield Master (1400-1450), later used by the English playwright William Shakespeare (1564 (baptised) – 1616) in his play Henry IV, Part 2 (c. 1596–1599): see the quotation.
In Context
- "[H]e hath eaten me out of houſe and home, he hath put all my ſubſtance into that fat belly of his, but I will haue ſome of it out againe, or I will ride thee a nights like the mare."