Slang "(be) ate up" (= be a bit of a dingbat)?

[Grant Barrett]

I know this from my childhood in Missouri. I specifically remember it
from around 1983-86 because it was new to me and we'd just moved to a
small town in Audrain County, which is in the northeast-ish part of
the state, not near the Ozarks at all. However, the area is sometimes
called "Little Dixie" because of various attributes and
characteristics of the people said to be carryovers from the folks
who moved there from (I believe) Tennessee and Kentucky.

It was almost always "he's all ate up" meaning 'he's screwed up,
screwy, crazy, confused."

DARE doesn't seem to have it, by the way.

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org

On Jul 19, 2005, at 11:50, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

> Yesterday I was asked if I'm familiar with the (possibly only local/
> possibly only Ozark) expression "ate up" as an adjective.  The
> meaning is roughly "be a bit of a dingbat (at least temporarily)."
> I asked for an example in context, and was told, IIRC, "I'm ate up,
> done messed everything up."
>
>  Anyway, I had never heard of it. I see it's not in HDAS and I
> don't have DARE handy.  Is anyone else familiar with the
> expression? And would anyone know what its original reference was?
>
> Gerald Cohen
> Rolla, Missouri
> (btw, pronounced RAHLuh, not ROHL-uh)
>
>