consumption

The act of eating, drinking or using.

Noun

  1. The act of eating, drinking or using.
    • The consumption of snails as food is more common in France than in England.
    • A Guardia Civil spokesperson said that ayahuasca, San Pedro, toad poison, wild rue and mimosa pudica were prohibited substances in Spain, adding that their consumption was not authorised because, while they were natural...
  2. The amount consumed.
    • gross national consumption
  3. The act of consuming or destroying.
    • The fire's consumption of the forest caused ecological changes.
    • Driving methods have a direct bearing on fuel consumption with every type of motive power. - 1963 February, “Diesel locomotive faults and their remedies”, in Modern Railways, page 99:
  4. The wasting away of the human body through disease.
  5. Pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases that cause wasting away, lung infection, etc.
    • And then as to your ſcurvys, and gouts, rheumatiſms, conſumptions, coughs and catarrhs, tar-vvater and turpentine vvill make you as ſound as a roach. - 1763 June 20 (first performance), Samuel Foote, The Mayor of...
  6. Alcoholism as it precipitates a person's death (especially of natural causes).

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *upó Proto-Italic *supo Latin sub Latin sub- Proto-Indo-European *h₁em-der. Proto-Italic *emō Latin emō Latin sūmō Latin cōnsūmō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin cōnsūmptiōder. Old French consumpcionbor. Middle English consumpcioun English consumption From con- + Latin sūmptus + -ion, from Middle English consumpcioun, from Old French consumpcion, from Latin cōnsūmptiō, from cōnsūmō + -tiō, from con- (“with, together”) + sūmō (“take; consume”). Equivalent to consume + -tion.

Forms

consumptions

Related

consumer

Derived

anticonsumption autoconsumption coconsumption conspicuous consumption consumptional consumption function consumption good consumption room consumption weed cyberconsumption hyperconsumption induced consumption metaconsumption nonconsumption over-consumption overconsumption photoconsumption power consumption prosumption quick consumption reconsumption self-consumption specific fuel consumption underconsumption