flesh-eating

adjective

flesh-eat·​ing ˈflesh-ˌē-tiŋ 

: feeding on or destroying flesh or soft tissue

A Kentucky man was diagnosed with a flesh-eating infection after he went camping along the Green River.

—Dayton (Ohio) Daily News

… infestation by blowflies whose eggs hatch into flesh-eating maggots.

—Kerry Capell

But according to Eugenie Clark, a University of Maryland zoologist, "the white shark, the largest flesh-eating fish, is anything but a mindless, constant eating machine."

—Discover

Natural history buffs will find … a 145-million-year-old foot from the Allosaur, one of the largest flesh-eating dinosaurs …

—Carolyn Hughes Crowley

see also flesh-eating bacterium, flesh-eating disease

Examples of flesh-eating in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The battle against the flesh-eating fly has only just begun deep in Mexico. — Mark Landler Luis Antonio Rojas Laura Chung Francisco Rodríguez, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026

In 2023, to the frustration of cattlemen and officials alike, the flesh-eating fly broke through containment lines in the Darien Gap, a stretch of dense rainforest between Colombia and Panama, and spread north. — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 7 Sep. 2026

Meanwhile in Florida, a third death in less than a month was attributed to the flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus, which thrives in warmer, brackish seawater or by eating raw or undercooked shellfish. — Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026

The flesh-eating worm is now present on both sides of the border. — Abraham Tellez, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1588, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for flesh-eating

• accreting
• competing
• completing
• concreting
• defeating
• deleting
• depleting
• entreating
• preheating
• reheating
• repeating
• retreating