▪ I. consume, v.1
(kənˈsjuːm)
[ad. (perh. through F.) L. consūm-ĕre to take up completely, make away with, eat up, devour, waste, destroy, spend, bestow, etc., f. con- altogether + sūm-ĕre to take up, lay hold of, etc. For its pa. pple., consumpt (q.v.), from L. consumptus, was in early use.
F. consumer occurs in this sense in 15th c. (Littré); but in early use F. confounded consumer and consommer (-summer): see consume v.2]
1. trans. To make away with, use up destructively. Said chiefly of fire: To burn up, reduce to invisible products, or to ashes; also of any similar destructive or ‘devouring’ agent.
| 1382 Wyclif Lev. vi. 23 Al..sacrifice of preestis with fier shal be consumyd. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxix. (1495) 575 Nitrum abatyth fatnesse..consumyth and wastyth gleymy humours. c 1400 Destr. Troy 9531 Fyve hundrith..shippes Consumet full cleane. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. vi, Vnto ashes they will a man consume. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 161 Two hundreth of the houses consumed by flame. 1611 Bible Gen. xli. 30 The famine shall consume the land. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 214 Oyl of Vitriol..consumeth the teeth. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 844 The slow creeping Evil eats his way, Consumes the parching Limbs. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 241 Fire could scarcely consume the enormous beams of solid brass. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1871) V. xlii. 138 To consume the remains in the forum. |
b. To do away with by evaporation or the like, cause to disappear or vanish away. arch.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 74 Take a potel of water & of barly clensid, etc...seþe hem to iij parties ben consumed. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy i. iii, Tyll the moysture consumed be awaye. 1611 Bible Job vii. 9 As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away. 1658 A. Fox tr. Wurtz' Surg. ii. xxiii. 141 Stir it well about..consume away the water. 1796 H. Glasse Cookery xxi. 334 Let it simmer over the fire six or seven hours till half the water is consumed. 1860 Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. viii. iv. §7. 188 Its light so great as to conceal the sea-horizon, consuming it away in descending rays. |
† c. To destroy (a living being, or more usually, a people), by disease or any wasting process. Obs. Also refl.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 371/1 He [became] consumed in to a stone. 1538 Starkey England i. ii. 47 The pepul schold be consumyd. 1599 Broughton's Lett. ix. 33 Consuming them vp either by executions or exactions. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine Gg 5 a, Florianus..by cutting and launcing his owne vaines..consumed himselfe. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. (1676) 35/2 Let them..consume themselves with factions, superstitions, law-suits, wars and contentions. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 325 The rest were consumed either by Poverty or Diseases. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 97 Tho' they could not entirely subdue those invincible Savages, they tir'd, harrass'd, and consum'd them. 1732 Berkeley Serm. Soc. Propag. Gosp. Wks. III. 243 This slow poison, jointly operating with the small-pox, and their wars..have consumed the Indians. |
† d. To decompose (organic matter). Obs.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §330 In Church-yards, where they bury much..the Earth..will consume the Corps, in far shorter time than other earth will. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 204 Mixing it with well-consumed Horse-dung. |
e. fig. (formerly chiefly figuring the action of fire); in mod. use, the metaphor of fire is less prominent: to engage the full attention or energy of, to engross. (Chiefly pass. or as ppl. a.)
| a 1400–50 Alexander 894 Þe lefe hen þat laide hir first egg, Hire bodi nowe with barante is barely consumed. c 1440 Gesta Rom. i. xi. 36 (Harl. MS.) The felowis that comythe to the tauerne..consumythe alle the vertuys that thei receivid in baptisme. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 92 That sorrowe, wherewith..you are most consumed. 1757 Franklin Ess. Wks. 1840 II. 95 Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears. 1777 Sir W. Jones Laura Poems 82 What pains consume me, and what cares infest. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 51 It almost consumes me..when I reflect with what stains our good cause is covered by it. 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby v. 111 He was consumed with wonder at her presence. 1949 N. Mitford Love in Cold Climate I. iv. 46 He seemed to be enjoying himself, consumed, one would say, by some secret joke. 1956 J. Rhys Let. 16 May (1984) 127, I feel like a fish in a tank and am consumed with a great wish to make faces at them. 1981 C. Francis in Francis & Tute Commanding Sea ii. 51 Drake was consumed by the idea of sailing into the Pacific. |
2. To spend (goods or money), esp. wastefully; to waste, squander. (Now only contextually distinguishable from 3.)
| 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 200 Causes were alleggid..that he had consumed the kyngis tresoure. c 1530 Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 33 Caste her a-way & consume her goodes. 1608 Yorksh. Trag. i. ii. 198 My husband never ceases in expense Both to consume his credit and his house. 1611 Bible Jas. iv. 3 Ye aske amisse, that yee may consume it vpon your lusts. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 145 Having then consumed all his estate he grew very melancholy. 1782 F. Burney Cecilia (1872) I. viii. 106 Come, naked and breadless as ye are, and learn how that money is consumed. |
† b. refl. To waste one's substance, ruin oneself. Obs.
| 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xliii. 476 A merchant, who had consumed himself greatly by his former liberality towards the poor English Exiles. |
3. To take up and exhaust as material, usually with the notion of destructive employment; to use up.
| 1527 R. Thorne in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 253, 360 degrees of latitude to be consumed in the said foure quarters of ninety degrees a quarter. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxx. 181 The Impositions..layd upon those things which men consume. a 1763 Shenstone Elegies xi. 27, I trimm'd my lamp, consum'd the midnight oil. 1773 Pringle Disc. on Air 22 An ordinary candle consumes, as it is called, about a gallon of air in a minute. 1862 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. iii. 87 The nervous force is consumed equally in mental and in bodily exertion. 1878 H. H. Gibbs Ombre Pref. 7 My friends have consumed the two hundred copies that were struck off. |
b. esp. To make away with (food), devour, swallow, eat up, drink up.
| 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. (1837) 134 The meate was all consumde, the dishes emptie stoode. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 170 The Garrison were forced by famine, to consume all their horses. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes I. viii. 141 Whilst his Excellency consumed betel out of a silver box. 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 52 Wine and punch had been consumed freely. |
† c. To swallow up in destruction. Obs.
| 1526 Tindale 1 Cor. xv. 54 Deeth is consumed into victory. 1658 Ussher Ann. vi. 424 The horses were partly (the ships being broken) consumed in the sea. |
d. To wear out by use.
| 1878 Hooker & Ball Marocco 156 The thin slippers universally used by the people are very soon consumed. |
4. To take up (time), occupy, spend. Often with the notion of ‘spend wastefully, waste’.
| a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) D, In what sciences I haue wasted and consumed my time. 1555 Eden Decades 37 Owre men consumed certeyne dayes here very plesauntely. 1759 Robertson Hist. Scot. I. iii. 242 Two years had already been consumed in fruitless negociations. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) I. iii. 156 Mary had now consumed the best years of her life in custody. 1842 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 181 There are generally three hours consumed in the drive. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. xxviii. 244 She then proposed that he should..call upon the squire, and thus consume his time. |
5. Rom. Law. (= consumere actionem). To exhaust (a pursuer's) right of action.
| 1875 Poste Gaius Contents 15 Non-statutory actions..have no power at civil law of consuming or novating a right of action. Cf. 1880 Muirhead Gaius ii. 180 note. |
6. intr. a. To waste away, decay, rot, perish.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 175 To lye vnoccupyed..and so to perysshe, consume and waste. 1611 Bible Job xiii. 28 Hee, as a rotten thing consumeth. ― Ps. xlix. 14 Their beauty shall consume in the graue. 1632 Lithgow Trav. vi. 256 An Apple..like to the colour of gold, and within was rotten, and would consume to powder. 1749 Smollett Regicide v. vii, Alas! thou fading flower How fast thy sweets consume! |
† b. To waste away with disease, esp. with ‘consumption’; also, with grief, to pine. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. xxi. (1495) 876 Those persones whyche done consume and waste. 1535 Coverdale Ps. vi. 7 For very inwarde grefe, I consume awaye. 1555 Eden Decades 53 Fogeda also through the maliciousnes of the veneme consumed and was dryed vp by lyttle and lyttle. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 400 He consumed away of a sudden, dying within a month. 1684 Contempl. State Man i. iv. (1699) 39 The proud Man grieves and consumes for the Felicity of another. |
c. To burn away, become burned to ashes. Also fig. with zeal, fever, etc.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iv. 92 Breake thou in peeces, and consume to ashes. 1702 Pope Sapho 12 While I consume with more than ætna's fires! 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 156 Were this body then to consume by itself, as it does when associated with other burning coals. 1823 De Quincey Dice Wks. 1859 XI. 294 A great fire, in the midst of which was consuming the old black book. |
† 7. The subjunctive was formerly used in angry imprecations: cf. confound you! hang you! and the like. [See consumed 3, ] Obs.
| 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. Two Orphans III. 187 Consume you, cried he; you have been mumping about..more than three weeks; go, take yourself away. |
▪ II. † conˈsume, v.2 Obs.
[a. F. consume-r, variant form of consummer, consommer, ad. L. consummāre to consummate; cf. consomme.
The proper F. repr. of L. consummāre is consommer (14th c. in Littré), but this was often spelt after its L. original, consummer, and by consonant-simplification consumer. It was thus brought into association with L. consūmĕre; the senses of the two verbs came also into contact in the notion ‘finish, constructively or destructively’, and during 15– 16th c. both were entirely merged in the forms consommer, consummer, consumer. Subsequently they have been partly differentiated; but consommer with its derivatives consommation, etc. still retains the sense of ‘consume victuals’, which belongs etymologically to consumer. Cf. consumation. In English, the confusion, which we originally received from Fr., was rectified at the Revival of Learning in the 16th c.]
trans. To consummate, accomplish, complete.
| 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 425/2 Saynt demetryen..consumed there his marterdom. Ibid. 431/4 God that wold benewrely consume his lyf..sente to hym an axes contynuel. 1502 Ord. Crysten Men v. vii. (W. de W. 1506) 425 The yeres a thousande .v. hondred..after the Incarnacyon of our lorde this present buoke was fyrst consumed. 1541 R. Copland Galyen's Terap. Pref. 2 A j b, The one is holpen, made perfyte, and consumed by the other. |