ate

alternative informal pronunciation spelling et

1. pastsimple past of eat
2. colloquialnonstandardparticiplepastpast participle of eat

   “Haven't ate all the eggs, I hope? For I be hungry as a hunter[…]

   1929, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Nicky-Nan, Reservist, page 27

   4 more examples

   I have a very good appetite, have ate some excellent melons, and they have served me up some quails, the fattest and tenderest I have ever ate.

   1805, Maximilien de Béthune duc de Sully, Memoirs of Maximillian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister of Henry the Great […] , volume IV, page 171

   As soon as all had ate, and the elder ones paid, the carriage was ordered; […]

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XVI, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 192

   The emotionless […] led the way into a large dining-room furnished with the severe simplicity of an apartment which is meant to be ate in, but never lived in; and at top of a table which would have accommodated eighteen persons Robert beheld Mr. Harcourt Talboys.

   1862, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley's Secret

   So I'd have ate when me Dad had ate, sort of thing, I think, you know when he come home from work, I'd have waited for him, I wouldn't have said I wanted mine at four o'clock[…]

   2013 January 11 [1997], David Bell, Gill Valentine, Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat, Routledge, →ISBN, page 140

plural ates · alternative informal pronunciation spelling et

1. PhilippinesAn elder sister
2. PhilippinesA respectful title or form of address for an older woman.