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# devour

«devour» in Mova's school dictionary: **To eat something quickly and hungrily, often all of it** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (devour, devours, devoured, devouring)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To eat something quickly and hungrily, often all of it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#m1)

2) To read, watch or take in something eagerly and quickly: «She devoured the book». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#m2)

3) To destroy something completely: «The fire devoured the forest». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#m3)

4) (of a feeling) To fill someone completely: «devoured by jealousy». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In science: predators devour their prey (food chains). In stories and fairy tales: wolves, dragons and giants devour; the Bible says the devil «prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour». In reading: children devour books they love. Phrases: «devour a meal», «devour books», «devoured by flames».

### examples

- The hungry boys devoured the pizza in minutes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x1)
- The lion devoured its prey. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x2)
- Ellie devoured the whole series of books in a week. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x3)
- The fire devoured the old barn. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x4)
- In the story, the wolf wanted to devour Little Red Riding Hood. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x5)
- The caterpillars devoured our cabbages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x6)
- He was devoured by curiosity about the locked box. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x7)
- The dogs come and devour the bacon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/#x8)

### note

Regular verb. Stronger than «eat»: it shows speed and greed. Pronounced dih-VOW-er. Do not confuse with «devout» (very religious).

### In the corpora

- [Are we not accounted by him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath also quite devoured our price.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.949/)
- [Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth; in the morning he devoureth the prey, and at even he divideth the spoil.'](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1626/)
- [And there came forth fire from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/LEV.236/)
- [And fire came forth from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/NUM.644/)
- [For the LORD thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/DEU.136/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «devour» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devour/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.