Library / English Dictionary

CONSUME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Engage fully

Example:

The effort to pass the exam consumed all his energy

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "consume" is one way to...):

absorb; engage; engross; occupy (consume all of one's attention or time)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Serve oneself to, or consume regularly

Example:

I don't take sugar in my coffee

Synonyms:

consume; have; ingest; take; take in

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "consume"):

cannibalise; cannibalize (eat human flesh)

habituate; use (take or consume (regularly or habitually))

eat (eat a meal; take a meal)

eat (take in solid food)

drink; imbibe (take in liquids)

booze; drink; fuddle; hit the bottle (consume alcohol)

partake; touch (consume)

eat; feed (take in food; used of animals only)

fill; replete; sate; satiate (fill to satisfaction)

sample; taste; try; try out (take a sample of)

sop up; suck in; take in; take up (take up as if with a sponge)

sup (take solid or liquid food into the mouth a little at a time either by drinking or by eating with a spoon)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

abstain (choose not to consume)

Derivation:

consumer (a person who uses goods or services)

consumption (the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating))

consumptive (tending to consume or use often wastefully)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Use up (resources or materials)

Example:

They run through 20 bottles of wine a week

Synonyms:

consume; deplete; eat; eat up; exhaust; run through; use up; wipe out

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "consume" is one way to...):

drop; expend; spend (pay out)

Verb group:

occupy; take; use up (require (time or space))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "consume"):

exhaust; play out; run down; sap; tire (deplete)

spend (spend completely)

burn; burn off; burn up (use up (energy))

indulge; luxuriate (enjoy to excess)

drain (deplete of resources)

run out (exhaust the supply of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

consumable (may be used up)

consumptive (tending to consume or use often wastefully)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Spend extravagantly

Example:

waste not, want not

Synonyms:

consume; squander; ware; waste

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "consume" is one way to...):

drop; expend; spend (pay out)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "consume"):

drink; tope (drink excessive amounts of alcohol; be an alcoholic)

dissipate; fool; fool away; fritter; fritter away; frivol away; shoot (spend frivolously and unwisely)

luxuriate; wanton (become extravagant; indulge (oneself) luxuriously)

lavish; shower (expend profusely; also used with abstract nouns)

overspend (spend at a high rate)

fling; splurge (indulge oneself)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Eat up completely, as with great appetite

Example:

The teenagers demolished four pizzas among them

Synonyms:

consume; demolish; devour; down; go through

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "consume" is one way to...):

eat up; finish; polish off (finish eating all the food on one's plate or on the table)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They consume more bread

Sense 6

Meaning:

Destroy completely

Example:

The fire consumed the building

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "consume" is one way to...):

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

These discoveries could explain why individuals with this genetic factor consume more food and have a higher BMI.

(International Research Team Finds Correlation Between Genetics and Obesity Is Modified by Diet, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

Savers consume very little energy in their activities and, therefore, the difference between sitting/lying or standing is practically nil for them.

(Spending more time standing helps increase energy expenditure and combats the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, University of Granada)

The researchers will continue to follow the children to determine if protection against peanut allergy remains once children stop consuming peanut products.

(Peanut Consumption in Infancy Lowers Peanut Allergy, NIH)

It is unknown how much was consumed in our kitchen by odd comers and goers.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The new study explores the possibility that the light came from a black hole consuming another object, such as a star.

(NASA Satellite Spots a Mystery That's Gone in a Flash, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The researchers believe this decrease relates to time consumed by school-related activities.

(High amounts of screen time begin as early as infancy, National Institutes of Health)

Maróth pointed out it would have been much more costly and time-consuming to research mortar technology than to acquire it this way.

(Hungarian state-owned enterprise acquires Hirtenberger Defence Group, Wikinews)

Hungry zooplankton hundreds of meters below the surface often consume carbon-rich particles sinking toward the ocean floor, interrupting the transport process.

(Research provides new view of the critical role of plankton in marine carbon storage, National Science Foundation)

In the presence of dinitrophenol, energy is consumed to pump protons out of mitochondria, but this energy is not recaptured in chemical form in ATP.

(Electron Transport Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The act of making a product as ready to be utilized or consumed by the end user.

(FDF Manufacture, NCI Thesaurus)