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Devour vs Food - What's the difference?

devour | food |

As a verb devour

is to eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.

As a noun food is

(uncountable) any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.

devour

English

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.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * gobble, gorge, consume, devastate, overwhelm, wolf

    food

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (uncountable) Any substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
  • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
      Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}
  • (countable) A foodstuff.
  • (uncountable, figuratively) Anything that nourishes or sustains.
  • Mozart and Bach are food for my soul.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Shakespeare)
  • This may prove food to my displeasure.
  • * (and other bibiographic particulars) (William Wordsworth)
  • In this moment there is life and food / For future years.

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "food": raw, cooked, baked, fried, grilled, processed, healthy, unhealthy, wholesome, nutritious, safe, toxic, tainted, adulterated, tasty, delicious, fresh, stale, sweet, sour, spicy, exotic, marine.

    Synonyms

    * (substance consumed by living organisms) bellytimber, chow (slang), comestible (formal), eats (slang), feed (for domesticated animals), fodder (for domesticated animals), foodstuffs, nosh (slang), nourishment, sustenance, victuals * (anything intended to supply energy or nourishment of an entity or idea) brainfood * (foodstuff) bellytimber, foodstuff

    Derived terms

    * cat food * comfort food * dog food * fast food * food bank * food chain * food fight * food for thought * food pyramid * food stamp * foodstuff * foody * health food * junk food * rabbit food * seafood * soul food * whole food

    See also

    * breakfast * brunch * dinner * dunch * lunch, luncheon * meal * supper *

    Statistics

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