devouring

/di'vauəriɳ/
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devouring

A child is devouring a large slice of watermelon on a sunny picnic blanket.

Definition

Adjective: 1. Excessively or intensely desirous; consuming with eagerness or passion: Describes a feeling or desire that is so strong it seems to consume a person. 2. Destructive; consuming or destroying completely: Describes something that consumes or destroys voraciously.

Usage

The adjective "devouring" is used to describe a powerful, often overwhelming, force, emotion, or action. It can be applied literally to something that physically consumes, or figuratively to intense emotions or desires.

Examples
  • Adjective:
    • She looked at the ancient manuscript with devouring curiosity. (Her curiosity was intense and consuming.)
    • The devouring flames quickly engulfed the old barn. (The flames consumed the barn destructively.)
    • He has a devouring ambition to reach the top of his profession. (His ambition is all-consuming.)
Advanced Usage
  • Figurative Use for Emotions: Commonly used to personify abstract feelings like grief, passion, or jealousy as if they were creatures that could eat away at a person.
    • A devouring sense of guilt kept him awake at night.
  • Literary/Descriptive Use: Often found in literary or vivid descriptive writing to emphasize extreme intensity or destruction.
Variants and Related Words
  • Devour (verb): To eat something hungrily or quickly; to consume destructively; to read or watch something eagerly and completely.
    • The lion devoured its prey. She devoured the entire book in one sitting.
  • Devouringly (adverb): In a devouring manner. (This form is rare but possible in literary contexts).
Synonyms
  • Consuming: (e.g., a consuming interest)
  • Voracious: (e.g., a voracious reader)
  • Ravenous: (e.g., ravenous hunger)
  • Insatiable: (e.g., insatiable desire)
  • Avid: (e.g., an avid collector)
Related Phrases and Idioms
  • "Eat someone alive" (idiom): While not using "devouring," this idiom conveys a similar figurative sense of being consumed by criticism, anxiety, or a competitive situation.
    • The stress of the job was eating him alive.
devouring

A child is devouring a large slice of watermelon on a sunny picnic blanket.

Adjective
  1. (often followed by `for') ardently or excessively desirous
    • avid for adventure
    • an avid ambition to succeed
    • fierce devouring affection
    • the esurient eyes of an avid curiosity
    • greedy for fame

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