consumption
- 1
- 2How much of something is eaten, drunk, or used.
Like checking how much milk your family drinks in a week.
The car's fuel consumption surprised everyone on the long trip.
We tracked our electricity consumption over the whole month.
Similaruse, usage, intake, expenditure
Oppositeproduction
Note
- 3The using up or complete destroying of something.
Like a candle burning down until nothing is left.
The consumption of the old barn by fire took only hours.
Rapid consumption of natural resources worries many scientists.
Similardepletion, destruction, exhaustion, use
Oppositeconservation, preservation
Note
- 4The slow wasting away of the body because of illness.
Like a bar of soap getting smaller every day.
The disease caused a visible consumption of muscle and fat over several months.
Severe consumption left the patient too weak to stand.
Similarwasting, emaciation
Note
Less common meanings
- 5An old name for tuberculosis, a serious lung illness that makes the body waste away.
Like something slowly eating away at the body from the inside.
The doctor diagnosed her with consumption and gave her only months to live.
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, Samuel Foote, The Mayor of Garret. A ComedyHere, consumptions means tuberculosis or similar illnesses that make the body waste away.Similartuberculosis, TB
Note
- 6An old word for dying slowly because of years of heavy drinking.
His family quietly blamed consumption for the drinking that killed him.
The old sailor finally succumbed to consumption after decades of hard drinking.
Note
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Latin cōnsūmptiō, built from cōnsūmō meaning "take" or "consume," and it reached English through Old French.