食う
くう · kuu · JLPT N3 · verb-godan
(male) (vulg.) to eat
🍜 食 = eat; kuu is the blunt, rough guy-talk version of polite 食べる
Same kanji as 食べる (taberu), but kuu is the older, rougher form, mostly used by men in casual speech. Hook: kuu is short and blunt, like a gulp, while taberu is longer and polite. It also shows up in set phrases like 道草を食う, to dawdle on the way.