Devour

//dɪˈvaʊɚ// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously. transitive

    "Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future."

  2. 2
    eat greedily wordnet
  3. 3
    To rapidly destroy, engulf, or lay waste. idiomatic, transitive

    "The fire was devouring the building."

  4. 4
    eat up completely, as with great appetite wordnet
  5. 5
    To take in avidly with the intellect or with one's gaze. idiomatic, transitive

    "She intended to devour the book."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    to consume wordnet
  2. 7
    To absorb or engross the mind fully, especially in a destructive manner. idiomatic, transitive

    "After the death of his wife, he was devoured by grief."

  3. 8
    enjoy avidly wordnet
  4. 9
    Synonym of eat: to be very good at something; to slay. Internet, intransitive

    "She devoured! She left no crumbs!"

Synonyms

All synonyms
consumegobbledevastateoverwhelmabsorbadore

Example

More examples

"However, I can't help noticing, at this moment, that at first glance it seems inevitable that the shark will devour the man."

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English devouren, from Old French devorer (Modern French dévorer), from Latin dēvorō, from vorō.

Related phrases

all-devouringlay waste

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.