“Eat up with,” short for “eaten up with,” can mean either consumed by or covered up with.

Here in Appalachia, a person can be “eat up with” or consumed by a negative emotion but not a positive one.  No one is ever eat up with love or kindness or compassion, but a person can be eat up with jealousy or rage or sadness.

A person also can be “eat up with” or covered with bug bites.  Grandson Ben and his parents came to visit this past weekend, and Ben and his dad did some outside work for us.  When they came in, we saw that Ben’s little arm was just eat up with bug bites!

Do you use the phrase “eat up with” or have you ever heard it used?