Consumption - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Consumption : (noun)
1: the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating) [syn: ingestion, intake, uptake]
2: involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body [syn: pulmonary tuberculosis, phthisis, wasting disease, white plague]
3: (economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing; "the consumption of energy has increased steadily" [syn: economic consumption, usance, use, use of goods and services]
4: the act of consuming something [syn: using up, expenditure]

Based on WordNet 2.0

Consumption : \Con*sump"tion\ (?; 215), n. [L. consumptio: cf. F. consomption.] 1. 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. --Burke.

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

3. (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.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Consumption : Consumption: An old and once common term for wasting away of the body, particularly from spine ).

The phtisis (the Greek word meaning "consumption") as the most widespread disease of his day and observed that it was almost always fatal. Someone who had tuberculosis seemed literally to be consumed by the disease. That is why they used to speak of 'consumption'" (my translation).

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)