CONSUMPTION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Consumption

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/kənsˈəmpʃən/ /kənsˈəmʃən/ Listen

noun

Consumption n.

The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.; decay; destruction. "Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption."

The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.

(Med.) A progressive wasting away of the body; esp., that form of wasting, attendant upon pulmonary phthisis and associated with cough, spitting of blood, hectic fever, etc.; pulmonary phthisis; called also pulmonary consumption.

Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.

Synonyms: Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.

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Etymology of 'Consumption'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Consumption" Quotes from Famous Books

... United States. At one time Sussex was full of iron mines, the furnaces being fed with charcoal, until so extensive was the destruction of the woods and forests that the Government interfered, and placed restrictions on the consumption of ...

— The Mines and its Wonders • W.H.G. Kingston

... disease of the heart, and the excitement brought on the crisis. My poor wife never was happy from that hour; she blamed herself for her father's death, and I believe it led to her own. She was ill for years; the doctors called it consumption; but it was more like a wasting insensibly away, and consumption never had been in her family. No luck ever attends runaway marriages; I have noticed it since, in many, many instances; something bad is sure ...

— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood

... Oh! consumption, thou scourge of England's beauty! how many mothers, gasping with ill-suppressed fears, have listened to such words as these—have listened and then hoped; listened again and hoped again with fainter hopes; have listened again, and then hoped ...

— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope

... a general interest in the cultivation of mushrooms. This is leading many persons to inquire concerning the methods of cultivation, especially those who wish to undertake the cultivation of these plants on a small scale, in cellars or cool basements, where they may be grown for their own consumption. At somewhat frequent intervals articles appear in the newspapers depicting the ease and certainty with which mushrooms can be grown, and the great profits that accrue to the cultivator of these plants. While the profits in some cases, at least in the past, have been very ...

— Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. • George Francis Atkinson

... within a short walk, and fancied that he would presently arrive at St. Andrews. In this he was reckoning without the railway system—he was compelled to wait at Leuchars for no inconsiderable time, which he occupied in extracting statistics about the consumption of whiskey from the young lady who ministered to travellers. The revelations now communicated, convinced BULGER that either Dr. MORRIS was not on the lines of Sir ANDREW CLARK, or, as an alternative, that his counsels were not listened to by travellers ...

— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, November 19, 1892 • Various

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