CONSUMPTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does consumption mean? 

• CONSUMPTION (noun)
  The noun CONSUMPTION has 4 senses:

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

2. involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body

3. (economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing

4. the act of consuming something

  Familiarity information: CONSUMPTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSUMPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

consumption; ingestion; intake; uptake

Hypernyms ("consumption" is a kind of...):

activity; bodily function; bodily process; body process (an organic process that takes place in the body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "consumption"):

eating; feeding (the act of consuming food)

deglutition; drink; swallow (the act of swallowing)

suck; sucking; suction (the act of sucking)

drinking; imbibing; imbibition (the act of consuming liquids)

Derivation:

consume (serve oneself to, or consume regularly)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

consumption; phthisis; pulmonary tuberculosis; wasting disease; white plague

Hypernyms ("consumption" is a kind of...):

T.B.; TB; tuberculosis (infection transmitted by inhalation or ingestion of tubercle bacilli and manifested in fever and small lesions (usually in the lungs but in various other parts of the body in acute stages))

Sense 3

Meaning:

(economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

consumption; economic consumption; usance; use; use of goods and services

Context example:

the consumption of energy has increased steadily

Hypernyms ("consumption" is a kind of...):

demand (the ability and desire to purchase goods and services)

Domain category:

economic science; economics; political economy (the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "consumption"):

conspicuous consumption (buying expensive services and products in order to flaunt your wealth)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of consuming something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

consumption; expenditure; using up

Hypernyms ("consumption" is a kind of...):

depletion (the act of decreasing something markedly)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "consumption"):

burnup (the amount of fuel used up (as in a nuclear reactor))

 Context examples 

There is no association between alcohol consumption and esophageal adenocarcinomas.

(Alcohol-Related Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

A dilated cardiomyopathy which is associated with consumption of large amounts of alcohol over a period of years.

(Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy, NCI Thesaurus)

This condition is attributed to excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.

(Alcoholic Cirrhosis, NCI Thesaurus)

A disorder caused by damage to the liver parenchyma due to alcohol consumption.

(Alcoholic Liver Disease, NCI Thesaurus)

A cognitive and neurological disorder due to fetal intrauterine exposure to maternal alcohol consumption.

(Alcohol Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Consumption of liquids containing ethanol, including the behaviors associated with drinking the alcohol.

(Alcohol Consumption, NCI Thesaurus)

The global consumption of antibiotics by food animals, estimated at 131,109 tonnes in 2013, is projected to reach 200,235 tonnes by 2030.

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

That she was, to all appearance, in the last stage of a consumption, was—yes, in such a situation it was my greatest comfort.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Causes include alcohol consumption, presence of gallstones, trauma, and drugs.

(Acute Pancreatitis, NCI Thesaurus)

This cyclic activity generates energy for cellular consumption.

(ATPase Gene, NCI Thesaurus)