CONSUME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does consume mean? 

• CONSUME (verb)
  The verb CONSUME has 6 senses:

1. eat up completely, as with great appetite

2. serve oneself to, or consume regularly

3. spend extravagantly

4. destroy completely

5. use up (resources or materials)

6. engage fully

  Familiarity information: CONSUME used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSUME (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they consume    ... he / she / it consumes   
Past simple: consumed   
Past participle: consumed   
-ing form: consuming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Eat up completely, as with great appetite

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

consume; demolish; devour; down; go through

Context example:

The teenagers demolished four pizzas among them

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 2

Meaning:

Serve oneself to, or consume regularly

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

consume; have; ingest; take; take in

Context example:

I don't take sugar in my coffee

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

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)

cannibalise; cannibalize (eat human flesh)

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:

Spend extravagantly

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

consume; squander; ware; waste

Context example:

waste not, want not

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 4

Meaning:

Destroy completely

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The fire consumed the building

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

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Use up (resources or materials)

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

They run through 20 bottles of wine a week

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"):

run out (exhaust the supply of)

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)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

consumable (may be used up)

consumptive (tending to consume or use often wastefully)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Engage fully

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

The effort to pass the exam consumed all his energy

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

 Context examples 

For comparison, the United States consume a very high 260 grams of meat per person per day.

(Eat less meat to cut drug resistance, SciDev.Net)

Photocatalysis is one of the most powerful ways we have to depollute the environment because the process does not consume the photocatalysts.

(Smog-eating graphene composite reduces atmospheric pollution, University of Cambridge)

In the case of the Solar System, this will include Mercury, Venus, and even Earth, which will all be consumed by the red-giant Sun in about 5 billion years.

(First Giant Planet around White Dwarf Found, ESO)

Refers to the number of calories (energy content) consumed.

(Caloric intake, NCI Dictionary)

Fruit of the Cranberry plant, a Native American wetland plant, can be consumed whole or made into food products such as jellies and juices.

(Cranberry, NCI Thesaurus)

They can include severe overeating or not consuming enough food to stay healthy.

(Eating Disorders, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

The amount of time that a thing is consumed or employed.

(Duration of Use, NCI Thesaurus)

Medication is dispensed and consumed under the direct supervision of personnel at a clinical site.

(Directly Observed Therapy, NCI Thesaurus)

Her hunch was borne out in the data, with elephants consuming only 3 percent of the fruit but producing 37 percent of the viable seedlings.

(Thai Elephants Help Spread Jungle Fruit's Seeds, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)

These isotopes indicate the types of food consumed by the individual in the years leading up to their death.

(Analysis of the Palaeolithic diet finds that, in the prehistoric age, for thousands of years there were no social divisions in food consumption, University of Granada)