DEVOURING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Devouring

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/dɪvˈaʊərɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Devour v. t. (past & past part. devoured; pres. part. devouring)

To eat up with greediness; to consume ravenously; to feast upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon. "Some evil beast hath devoured him."

To seize upon and destroy or appropriate greedily, selfishly, or wantonly; to consume; to swallow up; to use up; to waste; to annihilate. "Famine and pestilence shall devour him." "I waste my life and do my days devour."

To enjoy with avidity; to appropriate or take in eagerly by the senses. "Longing they look, and gaping at the sight, Devour her o'er with vast delight."

Synonyms: To consume; waste; destroy; annihilate.

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Etymology of 'Devouring'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Devouring" Quotes from Famous Books

... within him, and he said to himself, 'I am lost. It is the nyamatsanes, and they will tear me in pieces,' and indeed the cloud of dust was drawing near with amazing quickness, and the nyamatsanes almost felt as if they were already devouring him. Then as a last hope the man took the little stone that he had picked up out of his bag and flung it on the ground. The moment it touched the soil it became a huge rock, whose steep sides were smooth as glass, and on the top of it our hero hastily seated himself. It was ...

— The Pink Fairy Book • Various

... all these thoughts to himself, and just sat still, devouring his new books till he had come to the end of them all. It was a repast not unlike the Barmecide's feast which you read of in the "Arabian Nights," which consisted of very elegant but empty dishes, or that supper of Sancho Panza in "Don Quixote," ...

— The Little Lame Prince - And: The Invisible Prince; Prince Cherry; The Prince With The Nose - The Frog-Prince; Clever Alice • Miss Mulock--Pseudonym of Maria Dinah Craik

... the snow, in any case one or another conveyance had come to a standstill, and prevented others from pursuing their route. I recollect seeing hungry men cutting steaks from the flanks of the dead beasts, sometimes devouring the horseflesh raw, at others taking it to some cottage, where the avaricious peasants, who refused to part with a scrap of food, at least had to let these cold and hungry men warm themselves at a fire, and toast their horseflesh before it. At one halt three soldiers knocked ...

— My Days of Adventure - The Fall of France, 1870-71 • Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

... affronts of the post master and the contempt of Madame Minoret-Levrault, and played a contemptible part towards Desire, consoling the fair victims whom that youth left behind him after each vacation,—devouring the crumbs of the ...

— Ursula • Honore de Balzac

... Into it gradually penetrated the soft, insistent sound of the distant roar of New York—a cruel, clamorous, devouring sound like a demand for that price of ...

— The Price She Paid • David Graham Phillips

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