devour
/dɪˈvaʊə
/verb [with object]
1Eat (food or prey) hungrily or quickly: he devoured half of his burger in one bite...
- As we settled down to supper, devouring the food hungrily, the front door slammed open.
- We welcomed the range of foreign foods on offer, devouring pizza, curry and Thai greedily.
- Nietzsche illustrates the dynamics of the strong valuation with an infamous image of birds of prey devouring defenseless lambs.
Synonyms
eat hungrily, eat quickly, eat greedily, eat heartily, eat up, swallow, gobble (up/down), guzzle (down), gulp (down), bolt (down), cram down, gorge oneself on, wolf (down), feast on, consume
informal scoff (down), pack away, demolish, dispose of, make short work of, polish off, shovel down, stuff one's face with, stuff oneself with, stuff (down), pig oneself on, pig out on, sink, put away, tuck away, get outside of, get one's laughing gear round
British informal gollop, shift
Northern Irish informal gorb
North American informal scarf (down/up), snarf (down/up), inhale
rare ingurgitate
1.1(Of fire or a similar force) destroy completely: the hungry flames devoured the old house...
- Leaning over, she scatters the remains of the card into the fireplace, watching the flames devour it and leave behind only ashes.
- In less than half an hour, the flames devoured four buildings.
- She hit the Platters rocks, close to the shore just west of the suspension bridge, and a fire devoured what remained above the water.
Synonyms
destroy, consume, engulf, envelop, demolish, lay waste, wipe out, annihilate, devastate;
raze, gut, ravage, ruin, wreck
2Read quickly and eagerly: she spent her evenings devouring the classics...
- Amanda read the pamphlet with great interest, devouring every word and photograph.
- The semi-annual issuance of the INFORMANT was eagerly awaited, and serious players literally devoured its contents from cover to cover.
- He read Aristotle, Plato, Marx and Lenin and devoured both great European novels and contemporary pulp fiction in binges of late-night reading.
3 (be devoured) Be totally absorbed by a powerful feeling: she was devoured by need...
- Fearing I would soon be totally devoured, I broke away from a pash for the second time in the space of about half an hour - surely a new record.
- Then give yourself permission to stop worrying about things you can't control, so you won't be devoured by fear.
Synonyms
afflict, torture, plague, bedevil, trouble, harrow, rack;
consume, swallow up, engulf, swamp, overcome, overwhelm
Derivatives
devourer
/ noun ...- She was as much an actress: a devourer of words, books, theatre and cinema screen, costume and design, dance and folklore, as she was the vessel for her incredible voice.
- Here the story picks up as the tormented devourer of souls tries to escape his captor, the omnipresent octopus-like Elder God.
- Enraged, Gupan and Utar descended from the Chariot of The Clouds into the pit to do battle with Mot, devourer of The Dead.
devouringly
Origin
Middle English: from Old French devorer, from Latin devorare, from de- 'down' + vorare 'to swallow'.
Rhymes
- periodically
- periodical month
- periodicalness
- periodical stream
- periodic classification
- periodic comet
- periodic detention
- periodic error
- periodic function
- periodicity
- periodic law
- periodic system
- periodic table
- periodic time
- periodide
- period instrument
- periodise
- periodization
- periodize
- periodizer
- periodogram
- periodogram analysis
- periodograph
- periodology
- periodontal