eater

plural eaters

1. A person or animal who eats.

   a very fussy eater

   5 more examples

   "He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible eater, to be sure," thought the farmer.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 96

   "Eaters of human flesh, two things have ye done. First, ye have attacked these strangers, being white men, and would have slain their servant, and for that alone death is your reward."

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   Coal-eaters they may have been, but a more willing or harder working Atlantic engine was never designed.

   1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, pages 3, 5

   I'm a slow but fastidious eater

   1987, Baird Jones, Sexual humor, page 309

   Ice cream tastes good to the eater, and has the added advantage of providing a little chill of excitement […]

   1997, James White, The Best Sex of Your Life, page 166

2. A fruit or other food that is suitable for eating, especially one that is intended to be eaten uncooked.

   The bass is a fine eater.

   1911, Robert Ernest Vernède, The Fair Dominion: A Record of Canadian Impressions, page 98

   1 more example

   For the British market, apples are classed as early, mid-season, or late, and subdivided into eaters or cookers.

   2004, Laura Mason, Food Culture in Great Britain, page 94

3. cellular automataA configuration of cells that appears to consume another configuration by gradually causing it to disappear.

   The eater can also destroy a snail, but changes its phase while doing so.

   1997 November 30, David Bell, “Day & Night - An Interesting Variant of Life (part 2/5)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)

   2 more examples

   But there are many queen bee configurations in which the debris is neutralized, including placement of a block or eater near the bee's turnaround point, or placing two queen bees in a line or at right angles in various positions and phases.

   1989 October 31, Scott Huddleston, “life: glider guns”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)

   Probably even if it didn't fail catastrophically, any design like this would get stuck in an infinite loop pretty quick, upon hitting its first "cleaner-proof" ash -- an eater pattern that happens to absorb the test reaction without itself being altered.

   2009 January 13, Dave Greene, “Ash”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)