Can you say that something "eats time"?
I am looking for a more expressive way to say that something takes time/delays something important. Does the following expression make sense in English?
a tech glitch that eats time (of an important meeting, for instance)
The more idiomatic way to say it is that it eats up time:
An example of eat used as a verb is to say that something eats up time meaning it takes a lot of time.
Your Dictionary
Here's an example:
With manual methods, answering these questions is a Herculean task that eats up time better spent on other projects.
Dell Software — Enterprise Reporter