consume
/kənˈsjuːm
/verb [with object]
1Eat, drink, or ingest (food or drink): people consume a good deal of sugar in drinks...
- Anyway, the initial set back apart, the evening was most convivial, beers were consumed, food was ingested and chit was chatted.
- It's caused by consuming food and drink with high acidity levels.
- ‘Obviously a lot of extra food and drink is consumed at Christmas time,’ he said.
Synonyms
eat, eat up, devour, ingest, swallow, gobble, gobble up, wolf down, gorge oneself on, feast on;
munch, snack on;
drink, drink up, guzzle, gulp (down), swill, imbibe, take, sup, sip, lap
informal tuck into, scoff (down), put away, stuff down, polish off, dispose of, cram in, stuff one's face with, pig oneself on, graze on, down, neck, sink, kill, get one's laughing gear round
British informal gollop, shift
Northern Irish informal gorb
North American informal scarf (down/up), snarf (down/up)
formal manducate
rare ingurgitate
1.1(Of a fire) completely destroy: the fire spread rapidly, consuming many homes...
- New Orleans city officials say the threat of their flooded, ruined city being consumed by fires is worsening by the hour.
- The money often shared the fate of people and property - consumed by fire, drowned and otherwise destroyed.
- Now Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the hut that helped fan the flames of devolution has itself been consumed by fire.
Synonyms
destroy, demolish, lay waste, wipe out, annihilate, devastate;
raze, gut, ravage, ruin, wreck
1.2Use up (a resource): this process consumes enormous amounts of energy...
- Each human, particularly each American human, consumes enormous resources.
- But this puts you back in the exact same trap: the second machine is consuming resources too.
- American pacification efforts took on many forms and consumed enormous resources during the Vietnam War.
Synonyms
use, use up, utilize, expend;
deplete, exhaust;
waste, squander, go through, drain, dissipate, fritter away, swallow up
2Buy (goods or services): accounting provides measures of the economic goods and services consumed...
- But our privacy from the marketplace is always qualified, because as long as we consume goods and services, then to some extent our private pursuits occur within the marketplace.
- Society cannot survive on the intangible ‘feelgoods’ of ideas and creativity - it needs to consume goods and services produced.
- Even in a global era, we live locally and consume goods and services at a local level.
3(Of a feeling) completely fill the mind of (someone): Carolyn was consumed with guilt...
- Scott felt the same feeling of guilt consume him again.
- Such feelings often consumed the person to evil.
- However, strange feelings often consumed me that made me wonder if she ever viewed me as something else.
Synonyms
absorb, preoccupy, engross;
eat up, devour, obsess, grip, overwhelm, monopolize, enthral, dominate
absorbing, compelling, preoccupying, engrossing, all-consuming, compulsive, besetting;
devouring, obsessive, gripping, overwhelming, enthralling, dominating;
intense, ardent, strong, powerful, burning, raging, fervid, profound, deep-seated
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin consumere, from con- 'altogether' + sumere 'take up'; reinforced by French consumer.
assume from Late Middle English:
The word comes from Latin assumere formed from ad ‘towards’ and sumere ‘take, take up’. Sumere also gives us, from the same period consume ‘take up together’; presume ‘take before’ hence ‘take for granted’; and resume ‘take back’.