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enously; to feast upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon. Some evil beast hath devoured him. Gen. xxxvii. 20.

That may be devoured.

One who, or that which, devours.

In a devouring manner.

Devouring one's self or itself. Danham.

Devouring aphides; aphidophagous.

Gold-devouring. [R.] H. Walpole.

The larva of a moth (Heliothis armigera) which devours the bolls or unripe pods of the cotton plant, often doing great damage to the crops.

This dry sorrow burns up all my tears. Dryden. When the cold north wind bloweth, . . . it devoureth the mountains, and burneth the wilderness, and consumeth the Ecclus. xliii. 20, 21.

erica, and the Allied P. oleracea, a native American species) which, in the larval state, devours the leaves of the cabbage and the turnip. See Cabbage worm, below. -- Cabbage Fly (Zoöl.), a small two-winged fly (Anthomyia brassicæ), which feeds, in the larval or maggot state, on the roots of the cabbage, often doing…

A human being that eats human flesh; hence, any that devours its own kind. Darwin.

A genus of ground beetles, including numerous species. They devour many injurious insects.

Flesh-devouring; cruel; ravenous; bloody. [Obs.] This carnal cur Preys on the issue of his mother's body. Shak. Carnal knowledge, sexual intercourse; -- used especially of an unlawful act on the part of the man.

To seize or devour greedily; -- with up. [Obs.] Upon the opening of his mouth he drops his breakfast, which the fox presently chopped up. L'estrange.

n, 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 alone . . . that I may consume th…

of Phalacrocorax, a genus of sea birds having a sac under the beak; the shag. Cormorants devour fish voraciously, and have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese. [Written also corvorant.]

Ravenous; voracious. Cormorant, devouring time. Shak.

ird (Zoöl.), an African plover (Pluvianus ægypticus) which alights upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in pursuit of files, etc.; -- called also Nile bird. It is the trochilos of ancient writers. -- Crocodile tears, false or affected tears;…

Devouring knives; swallowing, or pretending to swallow, knives; -- applied to persons who have swallowed, or have seemed to swallow, knives with impunity. Dunglison.

The act of devouring. [Obs.] Holinshed.