Verb

(en verb)

To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.

To rapidly destroy, engulf, or lay waste.

:

*Bible, (w) i. 20

If ye refuseye shall be devoured with the sword.

*{{quote-book, year=2006, author=(w)

, chapter=1, title= Internal Combustion , passage=Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within,

To take in avidly with the intellect.

:

*

*:Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy […] distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.

To absorb or engross the mind fully, especially in a destructive manner.

:

Verb

(annihilat)

To reduce to nothing, to destroy, to eradicate.

An atom bomb can annihilate a whole city.

(label) To react with antimatter, producing gamma radiation.

(archaic) To treat as worthless, to vilify.

*, II.17:

of all the opinions which Antiquity hath had of men in gross, those which I most willingly embrace, and whereon I take most hold, are such as most vilifie, condemne, and annihilate us.