Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To take in as food; eat or drink up. synonym: eat.
  • intransitive verb To expend; use up.
  • intransitive verb To purchase (goods or services) for direct use or ownership.
  • intransitive verb To waste; squander.
  • intransitive verb To destroy totally; ravage.
  • intransitive verb To absorb; engross: synonym: engross.
  • intransitive verb To purchase economic goods and services.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To destroy by separating into parts which cannot be reunited, as by decomposition, burning, or eating; devour; use up; wear out; hence, destroy the substance of; annihilate.
  • Specifically To destroy by use; dissipate or wear out (a thing) by applying it to its natural or intended use: as, only a, small part of the produce of the West is consumed there; in an unfavorable sense, waste; squander: as, to consume an estate.
  • To cause to waste away; make thin.
  • To bring to utter ruin; exterminate.
  • To make use of; employ the whole of; fill out; spend: with reference to time.
  • Synonyms Devour, etc. (see eat); swallow up, use up, engulf, absorb, lavish, dissipate, exhust.
  • To waste (away); become wasted or attenuated.
  • To be destroyed as by use, burning, etc: as, the fire was lighted, and the wood consumed away.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To waste away slowly.
  • transitive verb To destroy, as by decomposition, dissipation, waste, or fire; to use up; to expend; to waste; to burn up; to eat up; to devour.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To use.
  • verb transitive To eat.
  • verb transitive To completely occupy the thoughts or attention of.
  • verb transitive To destroy completely.
  • verb intransitive, obsolete To waste away slowly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb use up (resources or materials)
  • verb serve oneself to, or consume regularly
  • verb engage fully
  • verb spend extravagantly
  • verb destroy completely
  • verb eat immoderately

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English consumen, from Latin cōnsūmere : com-, intensive pref.; see com– + sūmere, to take; see em- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin consumere.

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