Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Consuming or tending to consume.
- adjective Of, relating to, or afflicted with consumption.
- noun A person afflicted with consumption.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Indicating the presence of consumption: as, a consumptive cough.
- Destructive; wasting; exhausting; having the quality of consuming or dissipating.
- In medicine, pertaining to or of the nature of consumption, or phthisis pulmonaris.
- Affected with a consuming disease; specifically, having or predisposed to consumption: as, a consumptive person; a consumptive constitution.
- Relating to or designed for consumption or destruction; specifically, in recent use, pertaining to or designed for consumption by use: as, a consumptive demand for hops.
- noun One who suffers from consumption, or phthisis.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to consumption; having the quality of consuming, or dissipating; destructive; wasting.
- adjective (Med.) Affected with, or inclined to, consumption.
- noun One affected with consumption.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having a tendency to
consume . - adjective Of, or relating to
consumption . - adjective pathology Relating to
pulmonary tuberculosis . - noun A person suffering of
pulmonary tuberculosis .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective afflicted with or associated with pulmonary tuberculosis
- noun a person with pulmonary tuberculosis
- adjective tending to consume or use often wastefully
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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It seems ironic that while America's founding fathers considered the following truth to be self-evident -- that all men are created equal -- American consumers are engaging in consumptive behaviour that suggests their abnormally high incomes are some kind of permanent right of citizenship.
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One of the finest weblogs has been morphing into a new shape: "consumptive is back. a lot simpler, a lot more blank."
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"IFAW is sceptical in general about the amount of benefits that every actually reach communities from so-called consumptive use of wild life, but in this instance a zero quota would mean zero sales and zero benefits," said Dr Maas.
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When Dave Harper's name was called the consumptive stepped forward and registered, and when the latter's name was called Dave stepped forward.
The Hindered Hand or, The Reign of the Repressionist Robert E. [Illustrator] Bell 1902
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He had the air of a man whom in the 19th century one would have called consumptive.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph Staff 2011
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His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive — that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much.
The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells Herbert George 2006
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His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive -- that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much.
Science Fiction Hall of Fame Various, 1973
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His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive -- that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much.
The Time Machine 1906
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His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptivethat hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much.
Chapter 3 Herbert George 1898
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His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive -- that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much.
The Time Machine Herbert George 1895
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