To take as food
consume, devour, bite, chew, swallow, dine, feed, feed on, have a meal, enjoy a meal, lunch, breakfast, sup, snack, munch, nibble, gobble, gorge, stuff oneself, eat out, dine out, have a bite, feast on, fatten on, do justice to, do oneself proud, dispose of, peck at, pick, eat up, digest, masticate, ruminate, graze, browse, dispatch, feast, banquet, batten, discuss, partake of, fare, bolt, wolf down, gulp, fall to, tuck into, tuck away, break bread, live on, take in, have, ingest, taste, try, savor, gormandize, glut, overeat, cram, pack away*, put away*, polish off*, make short work of*, attack*, dig in*, make a pig of oneself*, eat out of house and home*, entertain the inner man*, feed the inner man*, ply a good knife and fork*, eat like a bird*, nosh*, put on the feed bag*, pig out*, stuff one's face*, feed one's face*, chow down*, scarf down*, inhale*, lick the plate*.
Antonyms fast*, starve, vomit.
To reduce gradually
eat away, corrode, consume, devour, wear away, erode, gnaw, rust away, destroy, ravage, dissolve, melt, eat up, use up, waste, dissipate, squander, drain, putter away, fool away, run through.
Antonyms increase*, swell, build.