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:
Researchers caution that these results do not mean people with Type 1 diabetes should simply consume more turmeric or begin taking curcumin supplements.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
But young Indians consume content and politics differently.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Health-insurance expenses now consume about 5% of the firm’s revenue—more than its profit margin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Digital audiences that may not have cable already consume a significant amount of MS NOW content.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
The wild bacteria consume the cell culture, eat it up, and make a variety of different smells in the air while they’re prowing, whereas viruses kill cells^ without releasing an odor.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Rent now consumes 40% of Roe’s $83,000 gross income, roughly the median household income in the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
A federal requirement that consumes a teacher’s time without improving a child’s day should have to justify itself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
Instead of reducing the amount of energy a person consumes, their approach is designed to increase the amount of energy the body uses by raising metabolic activity.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
Murrill told lawmakers last year that defending the state against these claims consumes an enormous amount of time and resources and that the fund should be abolished altogether.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
To my mind, there was only one compelling argument effect? for its existence: that when a hollowgast consumes enough of us, it transforms into a different sort of creature—one that can travel through time loops.”
From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs
It consumed more than 50% of her pre-tax salary working at an education nonprofit.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
In 2024 golf courses nationwide consumed roughly 1.6 million acre-feet, or 521 billion gallons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
"After the funeral, the support from other people gradually faded and life simply carried on, even though I was consumed by grief."
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
They consumed less protein as well as less carbohydrate.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Moni; Rajesh; Jagu: three lives consumed by variants of mental illness.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The American Medical Assn. and some nutrition experts, however, warn that consuming too much protein could cause digestive issues, weight gain, gout and other adverse effects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
Prof. Roche said the findings show for the first time that consuming yeast beta-glucan in the diet is enough to trigger trained immunity by altering bone marrow stem cells.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Even before this year’s run-up, interest on the debt was consuming a bigger slice of the federal budget.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Notably, neither scavengers nor flies that fed on the supposedly poisoned carcasses have perished -- creatures that typically succumb after consuming poisoned animals.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
I work on consuming my hot turkey sandwich.
From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick
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.
