Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To eat up greedily. See Synonyms at eat.
- v. To destroy, consume, or waste: Flames devoured the structure in minutes.
- v. To take in eagerly: devour a novel.
- v. To prey upon voraciously: was devoured by jealousy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To eat up entirely; eat ravenously; consume as food.
- To consume destructively, recklessly, or wantonly; make away with; destroy; waste.
- To swallow up, literally or figuratively; draw into conjunction or possession; absorb; engorge; take in: as, to devour a book; the usurers have devoured his estate.
- To gaze at absorbingly; look upon with avidity; view with delight.
- To give delight to; charm; enchant.
- Synonyms Consume, etc. See eat.
- To consume.
- n. See dever.
Wiktionary
- v. To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.
- v. To rapidly destroy, engulf, or lay waste.
- v. To take in avidly with the intellect.
- v. To absorb or engross the mind fully, especially in a destructive manner.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To eat up with greediness; to consume ravenously; to feast upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon.
- v. To seize upon and destroy or appropriate greedily, selfishly, or wantonly; to consume; to swallow up; to use up; to waste; to annihilate.
- v. To enjoy with avidity; to appropriate or take in eagerly by the senses.
WordNet 3.0
- v. eat greedily
- v. destroy completely
- v. enjoy avidly
- v. eat immoderately
Etymologies
- Anglo-Norman devourer, Old French devorer (Modern French dévorer), from Latin dēvorō, from vorō. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English devouren, from Old French devourer, from Latin dēvorāre : dē-, de- + vorāre, to swallow. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word devour had gained a fresh resonance for me.”
“Lord shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.”
“I should yearn to read His Word and devour it any opportunity I get.”
“Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?”
“Then Abner called to Jo'ab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?”
“Do you really think that before I found you, I was going about the world seeking whom I might devour, that is, be devoured by, in the shape of a wife ... do you suppose I ever dreamed of marrying?”
The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
“It is a most ill-natured thing, and the bane of friendship, to retain the resentment of affronts and injuries, and to let that word devour for ever.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume I (Genesis to Deuteronomy)
“They let their sword devour for ever, not considering that it would be bitterness in the latter end, as Abner pleads long after, when he was at the head of an army of Benjamites, probably with an eye to this very story, 2 Sam. ii.”
“Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?”
“Then it was but playing with the sword; now, Shall the sword devour for ever?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘devour’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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EN - pronunciation fun
All words of the poem
The Chaos
by Gerard Nolst Trenité
Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse <...abyss, ache, actual, advice, aerie, age, ague, aisles, alas, alien, alive, allowed and 406 more...
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Vocab2
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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Alternatives to EAT
Eat is a boring word.
chew, devour, gorge, feed, nibble, wolf, ruminate, scoff, munch, crunch, swallow
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Let's Eat!
Eating Verbs
boil, break bread, breakfast, chew, chomp, chow down, consume, cram, devour, diet, digest, dig in and 48 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
gonk, nerking, guap, gimp, fabulous, dabble, fabilicious, tragic, zooted, hey, cheekini, nugget and 457 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
Angels and Demons Word list
behemoth, disquietude, exalted, heretical, schlock, delirium, precipice, infallible, fathom, fervent, cavern, ardent and 35 more...
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2011 July
New words
correspondent, promulgate, transgress, trite, ravine, corespondent, contrivance, contrive, expedient, conducive, clairvoyance, difform and 184 more...
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Vocab 2
Vocab from lesson 2.
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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vocab2
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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lesson 2
vocabulary
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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Vocab Lesson 2: Kyle Zelenitz
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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Vocab 2:)
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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vocab lesson 2
astute, authentic, delicacy, derogatory, devour, figment, mythical, plumage, predatory, prior, scavenge, slaughter and 3 more...
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List A
sorority, tantalize, untimely, deem, to wit, pliable, deteriorate, fortnight, Immaculate, susurration, bushed, stray and 56 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for devour.
bilby
there is a dragon
devouring rocks and men
causing insanity
destroying peaceful lives
and calling itself love
- Rumi, ghazal number 2157 in 'Fountain of Fire', translated by Nader Khalili. Oct 26, 2008