ate

What it means

To have performed something flawlessly or looked stunning — short for the idea that someone 'ate it up.' Often extended to 'ate and left no crumbs,' meaning they did it perfectly with nothing left to critique.

Words like “ate” are exactly the kind of vocabulary our English vocabulary size test measures — find out how many English words you know.

Examples

• She ate that performance, the crowd went wild.
• You ate with this outfit, seriously.
• He ate and left no crumbs on that final exam.
• The way she ate that high note — chills.

Where it comes from

Rooted in Black and LGBTQ+ ballroom culture, where 'ate' praised a fierce, flawless look or performance. It spread through drag and stan culture before becoming a TikTok and Twitter mainstay in the early 2020s.

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