† absumev.
Obsolete.
1. intransitive. To waste away; to diminish.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > deteriorate in condition [verb (intransitive)] > waste away
wastec1400
wear1414
consume1526
worna1538
absume1590
smartle1673
1590 W. Clever Flower of Phisicke 93 These bodies..commonly preserued with naturall feuers all the daies of their life, doo not onely absume in the tenuity of their flesh, but many of them perish and decay in the substance of the heart.
1860 G. A. Sala Looking at Life 147 His goods absuming away from him like grease in fire.
2. transitive. To consume gradually; to carry off.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > destroy [verb (transitive)] > devour, engulf, or consume (of fire, water, etc.)
supeOE
eatc950
fretc1000
forthnimc1175
forfret?c1225
to-fret?c1225
swallowa1340
devourc1374
upsoup1382
consumea1398
bisweligha1400
founderc1400
absorb1490
to swallow up1531
upsupa1547
incinerate1555
upswallow1591
fire1592
absume1596
abyss1596
worm1604
depredate1626
to gulp downa1644
whelm1667
1596 Bp. W. Barlow tr. L. Lavater Three Christian Serm. i. 45 A Famine..lasting three full yeares, absuming many men.
1620 T. Venner Via Recta ii. 44 The excrementall superfluity of them [sc. cider and perry], by processe of time, is concocted and absumed.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) i. iii. 85 For if it had burned part after part, the whole must needs be absumed in a portion of time.
1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters iii. 310 The humidity is absumed to about one sixteenth.
1777 W. Green tr. Horace Odes ii. xvii. 91 One day, one ruin, shall absume us both.
1803 J. Pickersgill Three Brothers IV. xi. 347 The satanic gaze turned on the side of the cavern heat so powerful, that the clay in the interstices was absumed to an ash.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
<
v.1590