catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Consumption \Con*sump"tion\ (?; 215), n. [L. consumptio: cf. F.
     consomption.]
     1. The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.;
        decay; destruction.
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              Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a
              new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his
              consumption.                          --Burke.
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     2. The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or
        diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.
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     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.
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     Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and
        ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.
  
     Syn: Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.
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     Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and
        ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.
  
     Syn: Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.