devour

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈvaʊɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)
• Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)

Verb

devour (third-person singular simple present devours, present participle devouring, simple past and past participle devoured)

1. (transitive) To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.

   Synonyms: gobble, gorge, wolf

   • 2017 [2013], Thomas Piketty, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Belknap Press, →ISBN, page 571:

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

2. (transitive, idiomatic) To rapidly destroy, engulf, or lay waste.

   Synonyms: consume, devastate, overwhelm

   The fire was devouring the building.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 1:20:

     If ye refuse […] ye shall be devoured with the sword.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:

     Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within, […] most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.

3. (transitive, idiomatic) To take in avidly with the intellect or with one's gaze.

   She intended to devour the book.

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 373, column 2:

     Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its flavor.

4. (transitive, idiomatic) To absorb or engross the mind fully, especially in a destructive manner.

   Synonyms: devastate, overwhelm

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

5. (originally drag slang, Internet slang, intransitive) Synonym of eat: to be very good at something; to slay.

   She devoured! She left no crumbs!

Derived terms

• devourable
• devourer
• devouringly
• devouringness
• devourment
• interdevour
• undevoured

 

Related terms

• voracious

Translations

to eat greedily

• Arabic: اِلْتَهَمَ (iltahama)
• Bikol Central: habungal
• Bulgarian: поглъщам (bg) (poglǎštam), ям лакомо (jam lakomo)
• Catalan: devorar (ca)
• Cornish: devorya
• Czech: hltat, zhltnout (cs) pf
• Danish: grovæde
• Dutch: verslinden (nl), schransen (nl), vreten (nl)
• Esperanto: manĝegi, vori (eo)
• Estonian: õgima
• Finnish: ahmia (fi)
• French: dévorer (fr)
• German: verschlingen (de), fressen (de), schlingen (de), herunterschlingen
• Greek: καταβροχθίζω (el) (katavrochthízo)

  Ancient: λαφύσσω (laphússō), δάπτω (dáptō), δαρδάπτω (dardáptō)

• Hebrew: טָרַף (he) (taráf)
• Hungarian: fal (hu), zabál (hu)
• Ido: devorar (io)
• Italian: divorare (it), trangugiare (it), ingurgitare (it), ingozzarsi (it), affogarsi (it)
• Japanese: 貪る (ja) (むさぼる, musaboru)
• Latin: vorō, peredō
• Maori: whāō, horomiti, ngūngū
• Middle English: freten, devouren
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sluke

  Nynorsk: sluke

• Occitan: devorar (oc)
• Old English: fretan
• Old Norse: gleypa
• Persian: لمباندن (fa) (lombândan)
• Polish: pożerać (pl) (imperfective), pożreć (pl) (perfective)
• Portuguese: devorar (pt)
• Romanian: devora (ro)
• Russian: жрать (ru) (žratʹ), лопать (ru) (lopatʹ)
• Sanskrit: गिरति (sa) (girati)
• Serbo-Croatian: pròždrijēti (sh)
• Spanish: devorar (es), jambar (es)
• Swedish: sluka (sv)
• Telugu: తినేయు (tinēyu)
• Tocharian B: śu-

to rapidly destroy, engulf or lay waste

• Czech: pohltit pf
• French: dévorer (fr)
• German: zerstören (de), vernichten (de), verschlingen (de)
• Italian: divorare (it), consumare (it)
• Middle English: freten, devouren
• Persian: طعمه حریق شدن (to'me-ye hariq šodan) (by fire)
• Spanish: devorar (es)

to take in avidly

• Czech: zhltat pf
• French: dévorer (fr)
• German: verschlingen (de)
• Italian: divorare (it), ingurgitare (it), trangugiare (it), incamerare (it), assorbire (it), memorizzare (it)
• Persian: قورت دادن (fa) (qurt dâdan) (informal)

to absorb or engross the mind fully

• Czech: pohltit pf
• German: besessen sein von, eingenommen sein von
• Italian: divorare (it), consumare (it), assorbire (it), riempire (it)
• Persian: غرق شدن (fa) (ğarq šodan), غوطه‌ور شدن (ğute-var šodan)