Okay so there are many kind of antibodies - IgG, IgM, IgA and IgE.

IgA are only functional outside of the body (in your intestines and in your respiratory tract). IgE are only functional once bound to a very specific type of cell - they cause allergies. IgG and IgM, on the other hand, have many purposes. Which…are complicated. You have something floating around in your blood called complement. When Complement lands on something, it tells your immune system to kill whatever it lands on. So your body only wants complement to land on diseases. One of the ways it gets it to do this is by haveing antibodies (IgG and IgM antibodies) make complement settle onto diseases. In this case it isn’t really gobbled up - it makes proteins form that literally punch holes in pathogens (and ramp up your immune system so any survivors can get gobbled up).

The other thing it can do it make you immune cells gobble up whatever it binds too so it can kinda do both!