consume
Americanverb (used with object)
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consumes,
present (3rd person singular)
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consumed,
past participle, past
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consuming
present participle
verb (used without object)
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consumes,
present (3rd person singular)
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consumed,
past participle, past
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consuming
present participle
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to undergo destruction; waste away.
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to use or use up consumer goods.
verb
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(tr) to eat or drink
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(tr; often passive) to engross or obsess
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(tr) to use up; expend
my car consumes little oil
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to destroy or be destroyed by burning, decomposition, etc
fire consumed the forest
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(tr) to waste or squander
the time consumed on that project was excessive
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(passive) to waste away
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overconsumeverb
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preconsumeverb (used with object)
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underconsumeverb (used with object)
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consumingadjective
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half-consumedadjective
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unconsumedadjective
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consuminglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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consumesimple
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consumessimple
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have consumedperfect
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has consumedperfect
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am consumingprogressive
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are consumingprogressive
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is consumingprogressive
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have been consumingperfect progressive
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has been consumingperfect progressive
Past
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consumedsimple
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had consumedperfect
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was consumingprogressive
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were consumingprogressive
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had been consumingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of consume
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French consumer, from Latin consūmere, from con- con- + sūmere “to take up” (equivalent to subs-, variant of sub- sub- + emere “to take, buy”; cf. emptor ( def. ))
Explanation
"The Freshman 15" describes freshman-year college students who gain about fifteen pounds because they consume way too much lousy dorm food all day long. To consume a cake is to eat it, the idea being that you ate the whole thing. To say a fire consumed a building is to say that the entire building was destroyed. Consume means to devour, to take in, to use up. The Unites States is often referred to as a consumer society because our economy is based on things being consumed. Whether it's gas, clothes, burgers, music, or anything that we use up as we purchase it, it's something that we consume. If we consume all the oil, there will be none left to burn.
Vocabulary lists containing consume
Eat Your Words
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"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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Number the Stars
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It inherently asks us to consume these people and needs us to in order to make money, but sometimes consumers want to unhinge their jaws and eat these stars whole, a frightening and unsettling behavior.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
Meta’s behemoth Hyperion data center in Louisiana will have 10 company-funded natural-gas power plants, which will generate 7.5 gigawatts of electricity, and consume over a billion cubic feet of gas daily.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
The observations add to growing evidence that black holes do more than consume matter.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026
Outspoken about the ongoing plight of Palestinians, Bardem wishes more people could apply the lessons they mine from fiction they consume to the world in turmoil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Guilt and feelings of inadequacy could consume him.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
In normal circumstances, the world economy consumes a little over 100 million barrels of oil daily.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Astronomers use the term engulfment to describe what happens when a star consumes a planet.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
The first chapter still consumes me with grief, anger, and inherited trauma.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
An electric furnace steel mill consumes 40 megawatts to 200 megawatts of electricity during the course of a day, with power usage rising or falling based on the flow of steel production.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
How a four horse team whipped into a run on a straightaway consumes the road, surging and surging over it!
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
She estimated that she consumed close to 7,000 calories a day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Past outbreaks have occurred when people consumed fruits or vegetables irrigated with water contaminated by faeces.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Earlier studies found that flies and rodents lived longer when they consumed less protein, even when their overall calorie intake did not decline.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 2, 2026
That is roughly equivalent to the amount of water consumed by nine million households in a year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
For the next nine years, knowing that I’d earned it, I made myself a fat peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast each morning and consumed not a single egg.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
That mismatch may be a warning sign, since massive AI capex could put downward pressure on valuations if investors think that the spending is consuming too much cash without generating enough returns.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
The findings support the idea that parental care evolved by adapting brain systems that were already responsible for finding and consuming food.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 1, 2026
It requires updating, and in some cases, completely replacing, existing machinery, which can be costly and time consuming.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The San Francisco-based startup, a chief rival to OpenAI, said the model tops industry benchmarks for coding and knowledge work while consuming fewer computing resources than earlier versions.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Anger builds inside me, replacing my blood with bitter water and filling me, consuming me.
From "Divergent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
