The Chinese word for to eat is
吃

chī

Chinese Definition

eat
1. 动词. 吃、食

Translations for eat and their definitions

吃
1. to eat; to consume
他很喜歡吃飯。 - He loves to eat.
你吃飯了嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting)
你吃過飯嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting)
儂飯吃過了 ?？ - tr=3non&3ve&4qiq gu leq&0vaq, Have you eaten? (also a greeting), SH
喫jaak3 屎啦你！ - Eat shit!
2. to live on
3. to suffer; to endure; to bear
吃苦 - to endure hardship
吃虧 - to suffer losses, to be at a disadvantage
他胸口吃了一槍。 - He took a bullet in the chest.
4. to exhaust; to be a strain
Chrome 吃內存。 - Chrome is a memory hog.
5. to drink
6. (board games) to capture
7. (mahjong) to chow
8. =====Usage notes=====
9. to stammer; to stutter; to falter
口吃 - to stammer, to stutter
10. Only used in 吃吃 (qīqī)
11. (Hokkien) Alternative form of 食 (-)

食
1. (literary or Cantonese, Hakka) to eat; to have a meal; to take in
你食咗飯未呀？ - Have you eaten yet?
中國人係揸筷子食飯嘅。 - Chinese people use chopsticks to eat with.
上星sing1期kei4日我同啲朋友一齊食晚飯。 - Last Sunday, I ate dinner together with my friends.
2. (dialectal Cantonese, Hakka) to drink
3. (Cantonese, Hakka, Min) to smoke
食煙 - sik6 jin1 - to smoke, C
4. (Cantonese, board games) to capture
玩盲棋kei4-2 嘅時候，車geoi1 可以食馬、炮paau3、士、象、卒zeot1。 - When playing blind chess, a rook can capture knights, cannons, advisors, bishops or pawns.
5. (Cantonese, mahjong) Short for 食糊, gloss=to win
6. (Cantonese, figuratively) to receive; to accept; to absorb
硬食 - ngaang6 sik6 - , C
7. (Cantonese) to hit on; to flirt
食女 - sik6 neoi5-2 - , C
8. =====Usage notes=====
9. (Coastal Min) to eat; to have a meal
食飯 (chia̍h-pn̄g) - to eat rice; to have a meal, MN
汝食飽未？ (Lí chia̍h pá bōe?) - Have you eaten yet?, MN
10. (Coastal Min) to drink
食茶 (ziah8 tê5) - to drink tea, MN-T
食燒酒 (chia̍h sio-chiú) - to drink rice wine, MN
11. (Coastal Min) to take in; to inhale
食薰 (chia̍h-hun) - to inhale smoke; to smoke, MN
12. (Hokkien, Teochew) to embezzle (money)
食鐳lui (chia̍h-lui) - to embezzle money, MN
13. (Hokkien, mahjong) to chow
14. (Teochew, Penang Hokkien) cuisine
Synonyms: 菜
廣東食 ((rftranslit, zhx-teo) - Guangdong food, MN-T)
15. =====Usage notes=====
16. (Inland Min) Alternative form of 饁 (-, t=to eat)
^酈 ^食yì-其jī (Lì Yìjī) - Li Yiji (an advisor to Liu Bang)

吃飯
1. v. to eat
用筷子zi 吃飯 - to eat with chopsticks
他很喜歡吃飯。 - He loves to eat.
你吃飯了嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting)
你吃過飯嗎？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting)
你吃飯了沒有？ - Have you eaten? (also a greeting)
2. v. to have a meal; to eat; to dine
我想約你明天一起去吃飯，不知道你有沒有時間。 - I'd like to invite you out to have a meal tomorrow, if you have time.
你們收拾shi 收拾shi，準備吃飯嘍。 - Pack up you lot and get ready to eat.
3. v. to make a living
你靠什麼吃飯？ - What do you do for a living?
我現在失業，除了交房租，還要吃飯啊，壓力大啊。 - I'm out of work at the moment. Apart from paying rent I also have to make a living; it's very stressful.
4. usage. Chinese people sometimes use the sentence:你吃飯了嗎？ - Have you eaten? as a greeting. Its function is roughly equivalent to How’s it going? or How are you? in English.