consumption Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating)
    intake; ingestion; uptake.
  2. noun involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body
    white plague; phthisis; pulmonary tuberculosis; wasting disease.
  3. noun (economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing
    usance; use of goods and services; use; economic consumption.
    • the consumption of energy has increased steadily
  4. noun the act of consuming something
    expenditure; using up.

WordNet

Con*sump"tion noun
Etymology
L. consumptio: cf. F. consomption.
Definitions
  1. The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.; decay; destruction.
    Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption. Burke.
  2. The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.
  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. tuberculosis Syn. -- Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.

Webster 1913