1. (n.) The act or process of use, waste, decay; destruction; as, consumption of natural resources.

2. (n.) The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.

3. (n.) 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.