Consumption

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. 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.

2. The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.

3. A progressive wasting away of the body; esp., that form of wasting, attendant upon pulmonary phthisis and associated with cough, spitting of blood, hectic fever, etc.; pulmonary phthisis; -- called also pulmonary consumption. Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.

Synonyms: Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.