Definition of "eat into" [eat into]

• Gnaw into; make resentful or angry (verb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "At last, just when despair was beginning to eat into the vital parts of even Oswald, there was a quick tap-tapping of horses 'feet on the road, and a dog-cart came in sight with a lady in it all alone."
• "Eliminating a couple ideas that are too dumb like cracking open my extra AA batteries on the boulder and hoping the acid erodes the chockstone but doesn’t eat into my arm, I organize my other options in order of preference: Excavate the rock around my hand with my multi-tool; rig ropes and an anchor above me to lift the boulder off my hand; or amputate my arm."