- present participle of consume.
consuming
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of consuming
Explanation
If you have a passion for art, and making it is all you can think about or do, your passion for art is consuming. It is intense and almost overwhelming. Picture a fire burning in a fireplace. The fire consumes the logs you have put in it. It completely devours them in order to burn. When something, a passion or a drive, is consuming, it dominates a person's life like that fire, and in a sense, it devours their energy and attention. Your consuming desire to travel might cause you to study abroad for a semester or even move to Europe.
Vocabulary lists containing consuming
"The Scholarship Jacket" by Marta Salinas
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Clap When You Land
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NYTimes Summer Reading Contest Winners' Words
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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.
“We still have a long runway of more consumers consuming more every day,” Van de Put said on an investor call on July 28.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Many are quiescent, meaning they are not consuming nearby material or producing detectable light.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
OK, before I let you go, is there any PSA you want to give folks right now about whether they should be consuming lettuce?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
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
Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him.
From "The Return of the King" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
