Translation guide
How to express the idea of eating quickly, greedily, or in large amounts in Japanese.
To describe someone eating food very fast, often with a sense of greed or lack of manners.
A common onomatopoeic expression for eating greedily, like a hungry animal. Often used negatively.
彼はがつがつ食べている。
He is gobbling up his food.
Describes munching or chomping noisily, often used for animals or informal human eating.
Metaphorical use: something using up a lot of memory, time, money, or physical space very quickly.
To read, watch, or listen to something eagerly and in large quantities.
Directly translating 'gobbling up' as ガブガブ食べる or ゴクゴク食べる is unnatural. Use established onomatopoeia like がつがつ or むしゃむしゃ for eating, and metaphorical verbs like 食い尽くす for resources.
The kid is gobbling up the snacks.
Eating with big bites in quick succession, often used for children or casual situations.
彼女はぱくぱくとご飯を食べた。
She gobbled up her rice.
Literally 'to swallow whole', implying eating something in one gulp without chewing. Stronger image.
蛇が卵を丸呑みした。
The snake gobbled up the egg whole.
To eat up completely, often used metaphorically for resources or space being consumed.
このアプリはメモリを食い尽くす。
This app gobbles up memory.
Neutral term for 'consume', can be used for time, energy, or resources.
その作業は時間を大量に消費する。
That task gobbles up a lot of time.
To occupy or take up space exclusively, often used for disk space or bandwidth.
動画ファイルがハードディスクを占有している。
Video files are gobbling up the hard disk.
To read voraciously, hunting for books or information. Implies reading many things quickly.
彼はSF小説を読み漁っている。
He is gobbling up sci-fi novels.
To watch greedily, as if devouring with one's eyes. Often used for binge-watching.
彼女は貪るようにドラマを見た。
She gobbled up the drama series.
Loanword from English, used for binge-watching or binge-reading. Casual and modern.
週末にアニメを binge した。
I gobbled up anime over the weekend.