eater

Etymology

From Middle English eter, etere, etter, from Old English etere; equivalent to eat + -er (agent noun suffix) or + -er (patient suffix) (food suitable for eating).

noun

1. A person who eats.
   "He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible eater, to be sure," thought the farmer. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 96
   Coal-eaters they may have been, but a more willing or harder working Atlantic engine was never designed. 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, pages 3, 5
   I'm a slow but fastidious eater 1987, Baird Jones, Sexual humor - Page 309
   Ice cream tastes good to the eater, and has the added advantage of providing a little chill of excitement […] 1997, James White, The Best Sex of Your Life - Page 166
   2001, Cool Sexy Guy, Story: Cheerleading Camp Group: alt.sex The girls were having lots of fun rolling around on the bed, though Kacie was a much better fingerer and occasional eater.
2. A fruit or other food that is suitable for eating, especially one that is intended to be eaten uncooked.
   The bass is a fine eater. 1911, Robert Ernest Vernède, The Fair Dominion: A Record of Canadian Impressions, page 98
   For the British market, apples are classed as early, mid-season, or late, and subdivided into eaters or cookers. 2004, Laura Mason, Food Culture in Great Britain, page 94
3. (cellular automata) A configuration of cells that appears to consume another configuration by gradually causing it to disappear.
   But there are many queen bee configurations in which the debris is neutralized, including placement of a block or eater near the bee's turnaround point, or placing two queen bees in a line or at right angles in various positions and phases. 1989-10-31, Scott Huddleston, “life: glider guns”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
   The eater can also destroy a snail, but changes its phase while doing so. 1997-11-30, David Bell, “Day & Night - An Interesting Variant of Life (part 2/5)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
   Probably even if it didn't fail catastrophically, any design like this would get stuck in an infinite loop pretty quick, upon hitting its first "cleaner-proof" ash -- an eater pattern that happens to absorb the test reaction without itself being altered. 2009-01-13, Dave Greene, “Ash”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)