devour
Americanverb (used with object)
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devours,
present (3rd person singular)
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devoured,
past participle, past
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devouring
present participle
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to swallow or eat up hungrily, voraciously, or ravenously.
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to consume destructively, recklessly, or wantonly.
Fire devoured the old museum.
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to engulf or swallow up.
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to take in greedily with the senses or intellect.
to devour the works of Freud.
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to absorb or engross wholly.
a mind devoured by fears.
verb
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to swallow or eat up greedily or voraciously
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to waste or destroy; consume
the flames devoured the curtains
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to consume greedily or avidly with the senses or mind
he devoured the manuscripts
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to engulf or absorb
the flood devoured the land
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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devourernoun
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devouringnessnoun
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interdevourverb (used with object)
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predevourverb (used with object)
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redevourverb (used with object)
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devouringadjective
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self-devouringadjective
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undevouredadjective
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devouringlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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devoursimple
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devourssimple
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have devouredperfect
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has devouredperfect
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am devouringprogressive
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are devouringprogressive
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is devouringprogressive
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have been devouringperfect progressive
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has been devouringperfect progressive
Past
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devouredsimple
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had devouredperfect
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was devouringprogressive
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were devouringprogressive
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had been devouringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of devour
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English devouren, from Anglo-French, Old French devourer, from Latin dēvorāre “to swallow down,” from dē- de- + vorāre “to eat up”
Explanation
When you've gone all day without eating anything, you'll probably devour your dinner, especially if it's your very favorite homemade lasagna. Devour means to eat greedily and hungrily. The meaning of devour has grown to include the consumption of things other than food. If you sit down to start a book and look up ten hours later having turned the last page, you have devoured that book. If your after school job devours all your free time, chances are your grades are going to drop. The Latin root, devorare, means "to swallow down."
Vocabulary lists containing devour
Eat Your Words
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 7–11
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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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:
I still devour new music this way, clocking a daily average of four hours of tunes familiar and novel.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
For him and his family, this is a rare chance to devour durians "of good quality, and sometimes at nearly half the price of previous seasons".
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
The group stage would be a series of blowouts, the sharks would devour the minnows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2026
Fans could sip on BTS chocolate lattes or devour BTS kimchi-and-beef burritos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
The prison chaplain, he noted, “likened the warden of the establishment to a man who has tamed a tiger that one day may devour him.”
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
"If you don't run from it and you try to face it, it devours you," Ecologio Cabrera, 86, told AFP after fleeing with nothing.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
That hot, hard rock devours conventional drill bits and makes a hash of the concrete usually poured deep underground around the steel pipes required to line such a well and keep it from collapsing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
The practical jokes on the show appeal to a younger generation that devours prank videos — from MrBeast to Dude Perfect — across YouTube and other social media platforms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2025
With each strike, he devours the essence of liberty and justice, leaving behind a trail of desolation and despair.
From Salon ● May 8, 2024
Hunger devours me, I could almost weep for something to eat, I cannot struggle against it.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
As far back as his time in Atlanta, Snead had devoured books about Warren Buffett—usually on tape as he drove from school to school all over the South.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Some 10,500 people were being evacuated from their homes near the city of Perpignan in southwestern France as firefighters tried to control a blaze that has devoured 1,650 hectares, authorities said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026
It arrived at the peak of unscripted television’s popularity — a period when audiences devoured shows like “Survivor” and “American Idol” at their regularly scheduled times on television.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
"We have tentatively suggested that the long palps might allow the male to keep a safer distance during mating and help him avoid being attacked and devoured by the highly aggressive female."
From Science Daily ● Apr. 6, 2026
I devoured everything Akhi said and tried to faithfully execute everything he told me through the weeks and months of practicing together.
From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad
The candidates are bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, who are currently busy devouring as many calories as possible to fatten up for winter hibernation.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
Toiling around the clock, haggard Indonesian firefighters on Borneo island cannot keep up with the blazes devouring landscapes and shrouding communities in a cloying haze.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
Scavenger animals such as possums, red foxes and crows can be exposed to the virus while devouring the carcasses of infected birds.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 24, 2026
The beds and food bowls are gone; the floor where they always left messes after devouring the grub I made them is eerily clean.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
But is it not also thus: the living man, black and desperate to run, cursed by his connection to the white, devouring ghost?
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
