The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Consumption \Con*sump"tion\ (?; 215), n. [L. consumptio: cf. F.
   consomption.]
   1. The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.;
      decay; destruction.
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            Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a
            new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his
            consumption.                          --Burke.
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   2. The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or
      diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.
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   3. (Med.) 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.
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   Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and
      ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.

   Syn: Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.
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