gobble up

gobble up (third-person singular simple present gobbles up, present participle gobbling up, simple past and past participle gobbled up)

1. (transitive) To consume [something] rapidly.
   • 1728, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady:

     supper gobbled up in haste

2. (by extension, figurative) To continually absorb or expand through annexation.

   The city grew over the years by gobbling up land around its limits.

• forsling