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.
Consumption of the bowels(Med.), inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.
Syn. — Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.