to house = to eat

[Grant Barrett]

I’m leaning more towards HDAS “house” v. 2b “to outdo; outshine; defeat,” as it might also be extended to “destroy,” for which we have many slang uses along the lines of “I could destroy a pizza right now” ‘I am so hungry I could eat all of a pizza’ and “We destroyed a case of beer last night” ‘We quickly drank all of a case of beer last night.'

On Oct 22, 2013, at 20:30, Grant Barrett <grantbarrett at gmail.com> wrote:

> A listener to the radio show came across “to house” meaning “to eat.”
>
> I see “house” v. in HDAS has “to take for oneself; steal,” which is a possible connection, but it seems a more straightforward “house” ‘to cover, shelter, or contain’ is more likely the source.
>
> Has anybody done any digging on it?
>
> Here are a few uses I came across (in poor citation form, I’m afraid).
>
> The tortilla strips are such a wonderful invention.  So much easier when you are at a party and don't want to house a whole chip in front of other people. Yelp 4/13/2009
>
> I am about to house an entire Guinness Pie at our holiday lunch at O'Connor's, one of my favorite restaurant. 12/16/2009
>
> About to house a whole Alfredo pizza to my self. 4/11/2010
>
> I am about to house a whole pizza. i got goals! 1/29/2011
>
> I was starving so I wanted to house a burger and fries. Yelp review, 3/18/2013
>
> to eat quickly, or to do
> Man, I just housed so much Burger King.
> Urban Dictionary, 4/17 2013
>
> I am going to house a burger at Smith and Wollenskys. 6/9/2013
>
> Grant Barrett
> grantbarrett at gmail.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org