devour

C2+ Topic:Food & Drink

US /dɪˈvaʊɚ/ UK /dɪˈvaʊə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to eat hungrily or greedily; to consume completely

The children devoured the pizza within minutes of its arrival.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to eat hungrily or... consume gobble gorge wolf ingest gulp engulf

Opposites

abstain fast nibble

Word family

Forms devourerdevourersdevouringly

Derived forms devourerdevouringdevourment

Related forms voracious carnivore gluttony

Etymology

From Old French devorer, from Latin devorare ('to swallow down, consume'), from de- ('down') + vorare ('to swallow, devour').

devorare Latin vorare Latin *gʷerh₃- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Food & Drink

External links

# devour

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /dɪˈvaʊɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /dɪˈvaʊə/

## Meanings
1. to eat hungrily or greedily; to consume completely

## Examples
- The children devoured the pizza within minutes of its arrival.

## Synonyms
- consume
- gobble
- gorge
- wolf
- ingest
- gulp
- engulf

## Antonyms
- abstain
- fast
- nibble

## Derived Forms
- devourer
- devouring
- devourment

## Related Forms
- voracious
- carnivore
- gluttony

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: devorare
- Root: vorare
- Root: *gʷerh₃-

## Etymology
From Old French devorer, from Latin devorare ('to swallow down, consume'), from de- ('down') + vorare ('to swallow, devour').

## AI Etymology
Devour is from Old French devorer, from Latin devorare ('to swallow down, consume'), from de- ('down') + vorare ('to swallow, devour'). Important recorded forms include devorare (Latin), vorare (Latin), and *gʷerh₃- (Proto-Indo-European). Morphologically, the word is a built form whose named elements carry part of the historical sense. The current sense covers to eat hungrily or greedily; to consume completely. The wider family includes derived forms such as devourer, devouring, and devourment and related words such as voracious, carnivore, and gluttony.

## Topics
- Food & Drink

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