meat-eater

meat-eater — noun

1. a living being, whether human or non-human, that regularly consumes the flesh of

1.nounB1
Definition

a living being, whether human or non-human, that regularly consumes the flesh of other animals as part of its diet

Example

My brother is a meat-eater, but our sister prefers vegetarian dishes.

countable noun, used contrastively with vegetarian

Lions and tigers are meat-eaters that hunt other animals for food.

countable noun for animal species

Common collocations
  • confirmed meat-eater
  • keen meat-eater
  • strict meat-eater
Synonyms
  • carnivore

    scientific term for an animal that eats only meat; rarely used for humans

  • flesh-eater

    more dramatic or literary; less common in everyday speech

Antonyms
  • vegetarian

    a person who does not eat meat or fish

  • vegan

    a person who avoids all animal products, including dairy and eggs

  • herbivore

    an animal that eats only plants

Grammar Patterns

a [adjective] meat-eater

meat-eaters (plural)

Usage Note

Often appears in contrast with vegetarian, vegan, or plant-based eater in discussions about food choices. For non-human animals that eat only meat, the scientific term carnivore is more precise.

Common Mistakes

Humans are natural meat-eaters.
Humans are omnivores who eat both meat and plants.
Humans can digest plant foods too, so omnivore is the more accurate term.

Word family

  • meat
    nounA1
  • eat
    verbA1
  • eater
    nounB1
  • meat-eating
    adjectiveB2
  • meaty
    adjectiveB2
  • meat-free
    adjectiveB1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Meat-eater is a general, everyday term that applies to both humans and non-human animals that include flesh in their diet. Carnivore is the precise biological term for animals whose digestive systems are adapted to an exclusively meat-based diet — it is rarely used for people. Omnivore refers to beings whose diet includes both plants and meat, which describes most humans. Predator refers specifically to an animal that hunts and kills its prey, whereas a meat-eater may also be a scavenger (like a vulture). In casual conversation, 'I'm a meat-eater' simply means you eat meat; 'I'm a carnivore' sounds jokingly exaggerated for a person. For a wolf, both 'meat-eater' and 'carnivore' work, but only 'predator' emphasises the active hunting role.

meat-eater ↗carnivoreomnivorepredator ↗

Common collocations

Phrases

  • meat-eaters and vegetarians
  • meat-eaters and vegans
  • for meat-eaters

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

A compound of the Old English words 'mete' (food, later narrowed to animal flesh) and 'etere' (one who eats). The compound 'meat-eater' has been used since at least the early 1800s to describe both humans and animals that consume meat as part of their diet.