Other forms: consumed, consuming, consumes
To consume is to use something up. Consume energy, consume resources, consumed by fire.
In economics, consumers are the people who buy and use, and consumption is what they do. Of fire it means to destroy entirely: the building was consumed. Of feelings it means to take somebody over completely: consumed by jealousy, consumed with guilt. Note consumption, which was also the old name for tuberculosis, from the way the disease wasted the body; and consumer, which is now the standard word for anybody buying anything.
1verbconsumeTo use something up.
“The old car consumes far too much petrol.”
2verbtakeTo take somebody over completely.
“She was consumed by jealousy when her sister got engaged.”
consume is a using up.
Latin consumere is con-, entirely, plus sumere, to take up. Consuming something is taking it entirely, which is why the word works for food, fuel, fire and grief alike.
Latin
cōnsūmō
Old French
consumer
Middle English
consumen
English, today
consume
Built from
From Middle English consumen, from Old French consumer, from Latin cōnsūmō. From Middle English consumen, from Old French consumer, from Latin consumo, from con- + sūmō, from sub + emō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₁em- (“to take, distribute”), possibly related to the root nem- (“to take or give one's due”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA