CONSUMPTION, n. [L. See Consume.] 1. The act of consuming; waste; destruction by burning, eating, devouring, scattering, dissipation, slow decay, or by passing away, as time; as the consumption of fuel, of food, of commodities or estate, of time, &c. 2. The state of being wasted, or diminished.Etna and Vesuvius have not suffered any considerable diminution or consumption.3. In medicine, a wasting of flesh; a gradual decay or diminution of the body; a word of extensive signification. But particularly, the disease called phthisis pulmonalis, pulmonic consumption, a disease seated in the lungs, attended with hectic fever, cough, &c.
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