A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

eat someone alive • eat someone up
eat someone alive —(coll., also: eat someone for breakfast) 
1
.
rebuke or criticize smb. severely: The evolutionists will eat me
alive for this, but doesn’t the intricate design of our world
allow for the possibility of a creator? 2. overwhelm, harm, or
thoroughly defeat a person: Yes, they ate us alive but allow me
to lay down some reasons why it was still an awesome game
that we played!
eat someone up—
1
. (coll.) acclaim a person’s stage perform-
ance: Wait until you see the way they’re going to eat me up in
the court scene in “Saint Elba.” 2. = eat someone alive 2: Others
would not fail to make themselves greater or stronger by eating
up their neighbors. 3. (of jealousy, desire, etc.) torment a person
(often Passive): His drawings and a school essay hinted at the
despair that was eating him up.
eat someone out • eat someone out of house and
home
eat someone out—(coll., also: eat someone alive) rebuke or
criticize a person severely: I learned some supervisory skills
since one time our captain came in and started eating me out
for a maintenance problem.
eat someone out of house and home —said humorously of peo-
ple or animals that eat a lot of food in smb.’s home (thus ru-
ining the person): “Looks like the party is in full swing.”
“Yeah. And they’re eating me out of house and home.”
economic system • economical system
economic system —the system concerned with economics of
a country: What has gone wrong with the economic system
during the last ten years?
economical system —a system which does not require a lot of
money to operate: This system was extremely economical be-
cause it ran on half-price electricity.
effect something • have an effect upon something
effect something —cause smth. to happen; act so as to bring
smth. about: Who are the people that effect changes in our
society?
have an effect upon something —affect or influence smth.: We
could investigate different seasons of the year and see if this
had an effect upon the results.