devour

Verb

devour (third-person singular simple present devours, present participle devouring, simple past and past participle devoured)

1. (transitive) To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.
   • Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future.2017 [2013], Thomas Piketty, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Belknap Press, →ISBN, page 571

   Synonyms:

   gobble, gorge, wolf, engorge

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To rapidly destroy, engulf, or lay waste.
   • The fire was devouring the building.
   • If ye refuse[…]ye shall be devoured with the sword.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 1:20

   Synonyms:

   consume, devastate, overwhelm

3. (idiomatic, transitive) To take in avidly with the intellect or with one's gaze.
   • She intended to devour the book.
   • Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy...1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy)...
4. (idiomatic, transitive) To absorb or engross the mind fully, especially in a destructive manner.
   • After the death of his wife, he was devoured by grief.

   Synonyms:

   devastate, overwhelm

5. (Internet, intransitive) Synonym of eat: to be very good at something; to slay.
   • She devoured! She left no crumbs!

   Synonyms:

   go hard, kick ass, bang, eat, eat and leave no crumbs, excel, kick, rock, rule, shine