consummation
(kɒnsəˈmeɪʃən)
Forms: 5 -sommacion, -sumacyon, 5–6 -su(m)macion, 6 -acyon, 6– consummation.
[a. OF. consommation (-somation, -sumation), ad. L. consummātiōn-em, n. of action f. consummāre to complete, consummate. Finally conformed to the L. spelling.]
1. The action of completing, accomplishing, fulfilling, finishing, or ending.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ii. vii. (1495) 34 After purgacion foloweth illumynacion, perfeccion and consummacion. a 1400 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 198 All that hath herd this consummacion Of this pagent. 1490 Caxton Eneydos v. (1890) 22 For the consommacion of the said sacrifyce. 1546 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. iii. 129 The ereccion & consumacion of the newe hospytall in Smythfeld for the pore. a 1665 J. Goodwin Filled w. the Spirit (1867) 202 Between the beginning and consummation or finishing of it. 1667 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 467 He did expect to hear from Bredah the consummation of the peace. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. III. xx. 298 The king..urged the instant consummation of the treaty. |
b. The completion of marriage by sexual intercourse.
| c 1530 in Fiddes Life Wolsey (1726) ii. 171 Nothing was so muche desyred of bothe there parents, as the Consummation of the said act. 1548 Act 2–3 Edw. VI, c. 23 §2 Sentence for Matrimony, commanding Solemnization, Cohabitation, Consummation and Tractation as becometh Man and Wife to have. 1706 Farquhar Recr. Officer i. i, She would have the wedding before consummation. 1879 M. Pattison Milton 58 The suggestion..is that Milton's young wife refused him the consummation of the marriage. |
2. Completion, conclusion, as an event or condition; end; death.
| 1475 Caxton Jason 4 They visyted temples and oracles unto the consummacion of their dayes. 1483 ― Cato H vij, Dethe is consumacyon and ende of al payne and laboure. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 280 Quiet consumation haue, And renowned be thy graue. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. ix. 217 [They] held that it put a total Consummation unto things in this lower World. 1795 Southey Vis. Maid Orleans i. 180 This is his consummation! 1840 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile, Death's consummation crowns completed life. |
b. esp. in consummation of the world, consummation of all things, etc. (Sometimes with the subsidiary notion of accomplishment of a ‘dispensation’, or of destruction.)
| 1541 Becon News out of Heaven Wks. (1843) 55 He will be with you even to the very consummation and end of the world. 1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 352 The time..of the general consummation of all things is left uncertain. 1629 Symmer Spir. Posie i. vi. 23 At the consummation of the world, when the number of the Elect shall be perfected. 1777 Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. xvii. 201 At the general consummation of all things. 1875 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. i. iii. 45 The decline of our System, and its future consummation by fire. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. II. 262 Anything short of the final consummation. |
3. The action of perfecting; the condition of full and perfect development, perfection, acme.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 14 b, The consummacyon & perfeccyon of holynes. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer, Burial, That we..may haue our perfect consummacion and blisse. 1713 Steele Englishman No. 10. 64 It is the Consummation of all Crimes to be impudent. 1827 Hare Guesses Ser. ii. (1873) 548 The consummation of Heathen virtue. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) I. 93 Such return..is the consummation of the creature. |
4. A condition in which desires, aims, and tendencies are fulfilled; crowning or fitting end; goal.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 63 'Tis a consummation Deuoutly to be wish'd. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xi, The probability of Miss Nickleby's arriving at this happy consummation. 1851 Carlyle Sterling ii. ii. (1872) 91 Radicalism..had come to its Consummation, and vanished from him in a tragic manner. 1886 Morley Pattison's Mem. Crit. Misc. III. 137 Nothing..was done towards making the desired consummation a certainty. |