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 publication described how climate change is making ocean water in many parts of the world warmer and thus increasing the number of locations where Vibrio vulnificus can grow and thus where such flesh-eating bacteria infections can occur. — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026

Louisiana health officials are warning Gulf Coast beachgoers after a surge in Vibrio vulnificus cases, a flesh-eating bacteria, with nine infections and five deaths recorded so far this year. — Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2026

Louisiana health officials are urging residents to take precautions against a flesh-eating bacterial infection following the deaths of five people this year. — Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 8 Aug. 2026

Five people have died in Louisiana from flesh-eating bacteria infections so far in 2026, state health officials said on August 6. — Mike Snider, USA Today, 8 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