devour
part of speech
verb (devour, devours, devoured, devouring)
meaning for a pupil
1) To eat something quickly and hungrily, often all of it. tree →
2) To read, watch or take in something eagerly and quickly: «She devoured the book». tree →
3) To destroy something completely: «The fire devoured the forest». tree →
4) (of a feeling) To fill someone completely: «devoured by jealousy». tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: God's holiness is pictured as a devouring fire; fire from God devoured Nadab and Abihu when they offered wrongly. The Psalms use devouring as a picture for enemies who ruin a people, for fire that kills the young, and for harmful words. Interpretation: Tradition reads God as a jealous God who demands exact loyalty, and some commentators say Nadab and Abihu died from coming too close to holiness. The psalms' devouring is read as a cry to God against nations who destroyed Israel. In the primary 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
- For the LORD thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God. (Torah DEU.4.24, JPS 1917) tree →
- And there came forth fire from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. (Torah LEV.10.2, JPS 1917) tree →
- Are we not accounted by him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath also quite devoured our price. (Torah GEN.31.15, JPS 1917) tree →
- Thou lovest all devouring words, the deceitful tongue. (Writings PSA.52.6, JPS 1917) tree →
- For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation. (Writings PSA.79.7, JPS 1917) tree →
- Fire devoured their young men; and their virgins had no marriage-song. (Writings PSA.78.63, JPS 1917) tree →
- The hungry boys devoured the pizza in minutes. tree →
- The lion devoured its prey. tree →
- Ellie devoured the whole series of books in a week. tree →
- The fire devoured the old barn. tree →
- In the story, the wolf wanted to devour Little Red Riding Hood. tree →
- The caterpillars devoured our cabbages. tree →
- He was devoured by curiosity about the locked box. tree →
- The dogs come and devour the bacon. tree →
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.
- Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth; in the morning he devoureth the prey, and at even he divideth the spoil.'
- And there came forth fire from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
- And fire came forth from the LORD, and devoured the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense.
- For the LORD thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «devour» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.