devour (English) - Vocabulary & GRE App

devour

EN • English

//dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)//(UK)

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:

[DE]zerstören [DE]vernichten [DE]verschlingen [DE]besessen sein von [DE]eingenommen sein von

Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections

Key Verb Forms & Inflections

Third-person singular (he/she/it):devours

Present Participle (-ing):devouring

Past Participle:devoured

Simple Past:devoured

Definitions & Usage

verb

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

Synonyms:

gobble gorge wolf engorge

verb

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

Example: “The fire was devouring the building.”

Synonyms:

consume devastate overwhelm

Translations:[DE]zerstören [DE]vernichten [DE]verschlingen

verb

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

Example: “She intended to devour the book.”

Translations:[DE]verschlingen

verb

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

Example: “After the death of his wife, he was devoured by grief.”

Synonyms:

devastate overwhelm

Translations:[DE]besessen sein von [DE]eingenommen sein von

verb

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

Example: “She devoured! She left no crumbs!”

Synonyms:

go hard kick ass bang eat eat and leave no crumbs excel kick rock

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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