devour

verb

de·vour | \ di-ˈvau̇(-ə)r

, dē-\

devoured; devouring; devours

Definition of devour

transitive verb

1 : to eat up greedily or ravenously devoured the turkey and mashed potatoes

2 : to use up or destroy as if by eating We are devouring the world's resources.

3 : to prey upon devoured by guilt

4 : to enjoy avidly devours books

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Examples of devour in a Sentence

He devoured everything on his plate. The lions devoured their prey. She devoured every golf magazine she could find. He watched intently, devouring the scene before him with his eyes.

Recent Examples on the Web

Leftovers can be devoured for breakfast the following morning. — Time, "Weekend Recipe: Warm Rhubarb and Vanilla Crumble," 11 Jan. 2018 Not the usual fare from the romance queen, but that didn’t stop me from devouring it. — Anne Dunlap, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Hurricane guide: What's on my reading list," 30 May 2018 Let’s be real, though: the success of the former First Lady’s memoir is not a shock to anyone who has devoured the book since its release. — Tess Garcia, Teen Vogue, "Michelle Obama's Memoir "Becoming" Is Already the Best-Selling Hardcover Book of 2018," 1 Dec. 2018 The Delta Fire erupted Wednesday afternoon and within hours had devoured nearly 8 square miles of timber and brush on both sides of Interstate 5 near the Oregon state line. — Fox News, "Trucks abandoned as California wildfire shuts down I-5," 6 Sep. 2018 New lava zones from Kilauea continue to emerge on Hawaii without warning and the flow has already devoured over 500 homes. — Chris Morris, Fortune, "Hawaiian Farmers Brave Lava To Harvest Their Crops," 19 June 2018 What began as a grease fire in a young mother's apartment in the early morning of March 26, was now devouring each unit in its path, creeping across the roofline toward George's apartment. — Leila Atassi, cleveland.com, "Families sleeping on the floor weeks after devastating Garden Valley fire, need your help: A Greater Cleveland," 13 Apr. 2018 The InSight team devours each detail—the camera is showing less than two degrees of tilt, which tells them the lander is sitting nice and flat for its science. — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, "How a Small CubeSat Became the Unlikely Hero of the InSight Landing," 29 Nov. 2018 Those larvae then devour the wood, their zig-zag feeding patterns clearly delineated. — Frank Fitzpatrick, Philly.com, "Ashes of an industry: A Pennsylvania tradition is dying, one baseball bat at a time," 14 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'devour.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.