devour
verb (used with object)
to swallow or eat up hungrily, voraciously, or ravenously.
were devouring
-
past progressiveof devour.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
In the Middle Ages, European farmers noticed the critters were devouring pests, saving their crops in the process.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
When he got there, everything was fine, except that her baby, he discovered, was one of two wriggling black mounds covered by swarms of black flies, which were "devouring the remnants of the placental membranes."
From Salon ● Feb. 8, 2025
“It’s Danish Christmas in a sandwich,” said Mads Ravn, a Danish archaeologist, about the flaeskesteg sandwiches we were devouring.
From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2016
I went over to their house once and three baby tigers were devouring chicken legs in the living room.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2011
These trees were a species of wattle, and were just opening out their yellow, sweet-smelling, downy flowers, which the beautiful birds were devouring eagerly.
From "Five-Head" Creek; and Fish Drugging In The Pacific 1901 by Louis Becke
