noun

• The act of eating, drinking or using.
• The amount consumed.
• The act of consuming or destroying.
• (pathology) The wasting away of the human body through disease.
• (pathology, dated) Pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases that cause wasting away, lung infection, etc.
• (euphemistic, dated) Alcoholism as it precipitates a person's death (especially of natural causes).