consume
[verb]
Synonyms:
- eat, devour, eat up, gobble (up), put away, swallow
- use up, absorb, dissipate, exhaust, expend, spend, squander, waste
- destroy, annihilate, demolish, devastate, lay waste, ravage
- often passive: obsess, absorb, dominate, eat up, engross, monopolize, preoccupy

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Contrasted words: bolster, brace, buttress, hold up, prop, stay, support, sustain, build, construct, create, make, produce, renew, restore
Related Idioms: dispose of
Related Words: destroy, raze, ruin, wreck, annihilate, extinguish, crush, overwhelm, suppress, absorb, ingest, devour, gobble (up), gorge, wolf, down, gulp, guzzle, inhale, swallow

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English Thesaurus: eat, have, feed on something, consume, munch (on) something, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

con‧sume AC /kənˈsjuːm $ -ˈsuːm/ verb [transitive]
[Word Family: noun: consumption, consumer; verb: consume]
[Date: 1300-1400; Language: Old French; Origin: consumer, from Latin consumere, from com- ( ⇒ COM-) + sumere 'to take up, take']

1. to use time, energy, goods etc ⇒ consumption:
Only 27% of the paper we consume is recycled.
A smaller vehicle will consume less fuel.

2. formal to eat or drink something ⇒ consumer, consumption:
Alcohol may not be consumed on the premises.

3. literary if a feeling or idea consumes you, it affects you very strongly, so that you cannot think about anything else:
She was scared by the depression which threatened to consume her.
be consumed with something
He was consumed with guilt after the accident.

4. formal if fire consumes something, it destroys it completely
⇒ time-consuming

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

eat to put food in your mouth and chew and swallow it:
Experts recommend eating plenty of fruit and vegetables.
have to eat a particular food:
‘What do you usually have for breakfast?’ ‘I usually just have coffee and toast.’
We had the set meal.
feed on something to eat a particular kind of food – used when talking about animals:
Foxes feed on a wide range of foods including mice, birds, insects, and fruit.
consume written to eat or drink something – used especially in scientific or technical contexts:
Babies consume large amounts relative to their body weight.
munch (on) something to eat something with big continuous movements of your mouth, especially when you are enjoying your food:
He was munching on an apple.
They were sitting on a bench munching their sandwiches.
nibble (on) something to eat something by biting off very small pieces:
If you want a healthy snack, why not just nibble on a carrot?
pick at something to eat only a small amount of your food because you are not hungry or do not like the food:
Lisa was so upset that she could only pick at her food.
stuff/gorge yourself to eat so much food that you cannot eat anything else:
He’s always stuffing himself with cakes.
We gorged ourselves on my mother’s delicious apple tart.
slurp to eat soup, noodles etc with a noisy sucking sound:
In England it’s considered rude to slurp your soup, but in some countries it’s seen as a sign of enjoyment.
gobble something up/down informal to eat something very quickly, especially because you like it very much or you are greedy:
You’ve gobbled up all the ice-cream!
The children gobbled it down in no time.
wolf something down informal to eat food quickly, especially because you are very hungry or in a hurry:
The boy wolfed down everything on his plate and asked for more.
bolt something down British English to eat food very quickly, especially because you are in a hurry:
He bolted down his breakfast and was out of the door within 5 minutes.
You shouldn’t bolt your food down like that.
devour /dɪˈvaʊə $ -ˈvaʊr/ especially written to eat all of something quickly because you are very hungry:
In a very short time, the snake had devoured the whole animal.
be on a diet to be eating less or different food than normal in order to become thinner:
No cake thanks – I’m on a diet.
fast to not eat for a period of time, often for religious reasons:
Muslim people fast during the month of Ramadan.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲