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
Erosion fights are raging on coastlines nationwide as sea-level rise and intense storms devour beaches and prime real estate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
When I see my girlfriend devour books faster than the popcorn she keeps within arm’s reach, I feel guilty — and envious.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2026
"Maggot topping, all slimy and nice! I shall devour it in a trice!"
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
The Latin American country devours the fuel to power haulage trucks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
"He's someone who devours books, who needs to talk about them."
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
In Screen Gab No. 142, the actor behind Alyn of Hull stops by to discuss ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2, our editor devours ‘Presumed Innocent’ and more.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2024
In the show, rare glimpses of his inner turmoil come when he devours a lemon tart or a chocolate bar with a pleasureless intensity.
From New York Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
He grabs the crab from behind as it emerges from its hole and rips off the claws and throws them away and then devours the rest of the crab.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Now, countless memories rushed back to her as she devoured clips of the fully redesigned version, due to arrive on the Switch 2 later this year.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
"I devoured all of these facts so now at any party, I have at least five Milton Keynes facts."
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
At the fan convention, Serena Nguyen, 22, said she devoured the entire “Off Campus” book series during a difficult period in high school.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 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
You think of Jonah, who, after enduring being partially digested by the whale, burst into tears on a mountaintop when the gourd vine protecting him from the sun was devoured by a worm and died.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
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
Davis loved to read and collect books, devouring anything from John Updike and Margaret Atwood, among other authors, a passion that necessitated having bookshelves in every room of his home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 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
Fanned by wind, intense heat and exceptionally dry air, the fire has nearly tripled in size since early Sunday, devouring 4,600 hectares and leaving a firefighter and a resident injured, local authorities said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
Monster Slayer used those arrows to destroy the monsters that had been devouring the people.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
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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.
