15 Phrasal verbs related to food

You already know that phrasal verbs are those verbs that go with one or two particles that change or modify the meaning of the verb they accompany.

For a Spanish speaker, it is often complicated to know which particle to use. In addition, the same phrasal verb can have different meanings, making it twice as difficult.

The English don't make it easy for us, but let's not get discouraged, we have to be patient and little by little we will learn them.

To make learning a little easier, we will show you a small group of phrasal verbs related to food.

1. Eat in/out (To eat at home/to eat in a restaurant)
Are you going to eat in tonight? No, mum. I'm eating out with my friends.

2. Eat up (To finish all your meal, usually used with children)
Eat up your breakfast now or you'll be late for school.

3. Pick at (To eat small amounts of food because you're not hungry or you don't like it)
Is something wrong with you? You've been picking at your food for half an hour.

4. Dig in (To start eating)
Dig in before your food gets cold!

5. Pig out (on) (To eat a lot of food all at once)
The buffet was great! I pigged out on cakes and biscuits.

6. Polish off (To eat something until it's finished)
He polished off a plateful of lentils in next to no time.

7. Warm up (To heat food so that it's hot enough to eat)
Lunch is ready in the kitchen. When you get home you just have to warm it up.

8. Whip up (To prepare something to eat quickly)
I'll see what's in the fridge and whip up something for dinner.

9. Snack on (To eat small amounts of food between main meals or as a substitute for one of them)
I'm a bit hungry. I'll snack on some cheese or biscuits.

10. Cut down (on) (To eat less of something, usually to improve your health)
The doctor told me to cut down on salt.

11. Bolt/Wolf down (Eat something quickly and almost without chewing)
I wolfed my breakfast down and went to work.

12. Live on (To eat a lot of a particular type of food)
I could live on pasta. I love it.

13. Thaw out (To take food out of the freezer so that we can cook it)
I think I'll thaw out some fish for dinner.

14. Go off (When food is not good to be eaten anymore)
I forgot to freeze this meat and now it has gone off.

15. Order in (To call a restaurant so that they can prepare food for you and bring it to you)
I don’t feel like cooking. Shall we order in some Chinese food?

Here is a sample of phrasal verbs related to food. If you want to learn more phrasal verbs read our article about phrasal verbs related to clothes or enter lewolang, in the English grammar section.