consumption

Noun

consumption (usually uncountable, plural consumptions)

1. (usually) The act of eating, drinking or using.
   • The consumption of snails as food is more common in France than in England.
   • A Guardia Civil spokesperson said that ayahuasca, San Pedro, toad poison, wild rue and mimosa pudica were prohibited substances in Spain, adding that their consumption was not authorised because, while they were natural substances, they could be highly dangerous to human health.2025 August 11, Sam Jones, “Ayahuasca and toad poison seized as police raid spiritual retreats in Spain”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
2. (usually) The amount consumed.
   • gross national consumption
3. (usually) The act of consuming or destroying.
   • The fire's consumption of the forest caused ecological changes.
   • Driving methods have a direct bearing on fuel consumption with every type of motive power.1963 February, “Diesel locomotive faults and their remedies”, in Modern Railways, page 99
4. (usually) The wasting away of the human body through disease.
5. (dated, usually) Pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases that cause wasting away, lung infection, etc.
   • And then as to your ſcurvys, and gouts, rheumatiſms, conſumptions, coughs and catarrhs, tar-vvater and turpentine vvill make you as ſound as a roach.1763 June 20 (first performance), Samuel Foote, The Mayor of Garret. A Comedy, […], London: […] P[aul] Vaillant, […], published 1764, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 4
   • '[…] That she was, to all appearance, in the last stage of a consumption, was — yes, in such a situation it was my greatest comfort. Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death; and that was given […]'1811, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
6. (dated, euphemistic, usually) Alcoholism as it precipitates a person's death (especially of natural causes).