To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption, To destroy, ravage, or use up by or as if by ingesting, To exercise a consuming or eroding effect, transitive verb_ To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid, To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear, to consume completely