intransitive

Unfortunately, both explanations, the book's and yours, weren't correct. Eat is both transitive and intransitive. If we can say "I like to read" or "I like to eat", it's *not* that these verbs are transitive with 'assumed objects' (although they can also be transitive, in 'read books' and 'eat apples'), but rather that they are in these uses INtransitive. (In Ironlady's post she mentions identifying the intransitive verb and the prepositional phrase, but she didn't spell it out for you so I am.) A verb can be transitive in one use, and intransitive in another. Just because the most common use (or the only one you can think of) is one way doesn't mean you won't find both in the dictionary or in the literature out there.