Eat Someone Alive Meaning

(idiomatic, of insects) To bite repeatedly.

Example: 2006, Lora Leigh, Megan's Mark, Berkley Sensation (2006), ISBN 1101147024, unnumbered page:
  She shook her head wearily, the guilt eating her alive.
2007, Lynn Anderson, They Smell Like Sheep, Volume 2: Leading with the Heart of a Shepherd, Howard Books (2007), ISBN 1582296723, page 169:
  Eventually, Randy moved through the shock and began to see that anger was eating him alive and poisoning his life.
2009, Moira Rogers, Sanctuary Lost, Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (2009), ISBN 9781605045818, page 38:
  "How's Abby holding up?"
  "She almost isn't." Keith sounded exhausted. "The guilt's eating her alive. […]
2015 January 18, Charles M. Blow, “How expensive is it to be poor [print version: International New York Times, 20 January 2015, p. 7]”, The New York Times:
  [M]any low-income people are "unbanked" (not served by a financial institution), and thus nearly eaten alive by exorbitant fees.
2001, Mark Bego, Cher: If You Believe, Taylor Trade Publishing (2004), ISBN 1589791355, page 141:
  However, the album never even made it onto the record charts, and the critics ate her alive.
2010, Evelyn McDonnell, "Book Review: 'Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution' by Sara Marcus", Los Angeles Times, 10 October 2010:
  The media ate them alive. Sympathetic coverage, like Emily White's 1992 L.A. Weekly cover story, devolved into patronizing, parasitic parodies of "pink, frilly bedrooms."
2011, Stephanie Parker-Weaver, Rebirth: "A Breast Cancer Journey of Many; Survival of Few": A Mississippi Civil Rights Activist's Biggest Battle How She Beat the Odds, Xlibris (2011), ISBN 9781465340610, page 283:
  For nearly the entire full four years of Frank's administration, the local media ate him alive for even the slightest misstep.
1992, Mark Jenkins, "Beyond the Border: A Primer for Backpacking Abroad", Backpacker, February 1992:
  You may find that in June it rains so hard the streets are filled with a foot of mud and the mosquitoes eat people alive, but in October the place is beautiful.
1996, Sandra Steffen, Not Before Marriage!, Silhouette Books (1996), ISBN 9781459280816, unnumbered page:
  â€œLet's go into the house before these mosquitoes eat us alive.”
2002, Jack Williamson, Dragon's Island and Other Stories, Five Star (2002), ISBN 9780786243143, page 157:
  I had to keep close to the riverbank, under the edge of the jungle, with mosquitoes eating me alive.

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