Con*sump"tion (?; 215), n.. [L. consumptio: cf. F. consomption.]
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. Med.
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.
<-- tuberculosis -->
Consumption of the bowels Med., inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.
Syn. -- Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.
© Webster 1913.