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To destroy, as by decomposition, dissipation, waste, or fire; to use up; to expend; to waste; to burn up; to eat up; to devour. If he were putting to my house the brand That shall consume it. Shak. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume. Matt. vi. 20 (Rev. Ver. ). Let me alo…

The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.; decay; destruction. Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption. Burke.

pertaining to consumption; having the quality of consuming, or dissipating; destructive; wasting. It [prayer] is not consumptive or our time. Sharp. A long consumptive war. Addison.

Wasting away gradually. Darwin. - Con*ta*bes"cence, n.

a person; by on, about, concerning, etc., before a thing. Companions That do converse and waste the time together. Shak. We had conversed so often on that subject. Dryden.

A policeman. [Slang] Cop waste, a kind of cotton waste, composed chiefly

Energy wasted by hysteresis or eddy currents in the core of an armature, transformer, etc.

To waste, spoil, or consume; to make worthless. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt. Matt. vi. 19.

Causing, or fitted to cause, pain, grief, or misery. Cruel wars, wasting the earth. Milton. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath for it was cruel. Gen. xlix. 7.

The waste of the Pennsylvania anthracite mines, consisting of fine coal, dust, etc., and used as fuel. Raymond.

ality or being curious; nicety; accuracy; exactness; elaboration. [Obs.] Bacon. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee for too much curiosity. Shak. A screen accurately cut in tapiary work . . . with great curiosity. Evelin.

To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. We have trifled too long already; it is madness to dally any longer. Calamy. We have put off God, and dallied with his grace. Barrow.

To waste time in trifling employment; to trifle; to saunter. Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me. Johnson. We . . . dawdle up and down Pall Mall. Thackeray.

One who wastes time in trifling employments; an idler; a trifler.

ound, prosperous, or perfect state, to one of imperfection, adversity, or dissolution; to waste away; to decline; to fail; to become weak, corrupt, or disintegrated; to rot; to perish; as, a tree decays; fortunes decay; hopes decay. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. G…

A gradual sinking and wasting away of the physical faculties; any wasting disease, esp. pulmonary consumption; as, to die of a decline. Dunglison.

The state of becoming gradually less; decrease; diminution; waste; loss. Twit me with the decrements of my pendants. Ford. Rocks, mountains, and the other elevations of the earth suffer a continual decrement. Woodward.

Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out. "Beggary or decrepit age." Milton. Already decrepit with premature old age. Motley.

A gradual wearing down or wasting, as of rocks and banks, by the action of water, fro

To cause to melt away; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.