consume

v. i. To waste away slowly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Therefore, let Benedick, like covered fire,
Consume away in sighs. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. completely used up.
Syn. -- used-up(prenominal), used up(predicate). [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. eaten or drunk up. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adv. Excessively. [ Low ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He's so consumedly proud of it. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, consumes; as, the consumer of food. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Econ.) the person or organization that uses some item of commerce or service in its own acitities, as opposed to reselling the item or including it as part of another item for resale; -- called also the end user. [ PJC ]

n. An index of the cost of all goods and services to a typical consumer, calculated and published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; abbreviated CPI, and usually referred to by that acronym. The Bureau maintains several indices for different groups of consumers, but the most commonly referred to is the index for “All urban consumers”, called the CPI-U. The increase of this value each year is one measure of monetary inflation.
Syn. -- CPI, cost-of-living index. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

☞ For a table of values from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the CPI over time, see CPI-U from 1913 to 1998. [ PJC ]

(Polit. Econ.) Economic goods that directly satisfy human wants or desires, such as food, clothes, pictures, etc.; -- called also consumption goods, or goods of the first order, and opposed to producer's goods. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]