Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON'SUL-ATE, n. [L. consulatus.]

1. The office of a consul. – Addison. [This is applicable to modern consuls, as well as to the Roman.]
2. The jurisdiction or extent of a consul's authority. – Kent.

CON'SUL-GEN-ER-AL, n.

A chief consul.

CON'SUL-SHIP, n.

The office of a consul; or the term of his office; applicable only to Roman consuls.

CON-SULT', n.

The act of consulting; the effect of consultation; determination; a council, or deliberating assembly. – Dryden. Bacon. This word is, I believe, entirely obsolete, except in poetry. It would be naturally accented on the first syllable, but the poets accent the last.

CON-SULT', v.i. [L. consulto, from consulo, to consult, to ask counsel. The last syllable may be from the Ar. سَألَ saula, Heb. Ch. Sam. Eth. שאל to ask.]

1. To seek the opinion or advice of another, by a statement of facts, and suitable inquiries, for the purpose of directing one's own judgment; followed by with. Rehoboam consulted with the old men. – 1 Kings xii. David consulted with the captains of thousands. – 1 Chron. xiii.
2. To take counsel together; to seek opinions and advice by mutual statements, inquiries and reasonings; to deliberate, in common. The chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death. – John xii.
3. To consider with deliberation. – Luke xiv.

CON-SULT', v.t.

1. To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of another, as a guide to one's own judgment; as, to consult a friend or parent.
2. To seek for information, or facts, in something; as, by examining books or papers. Thus, I consulted several authors on the subject; I consulted the official documents.
3. To regard; to have reference or respect to, in judging or acting; to decide or to act in favor of. We are to consult the necessities, rather than the pleasures of life. We are to consult public as well as private interest. He consulted his own safety in flight. Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse. – Franklin.
4. To plan, devise or contrive. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house, by cutting off many people. – Hab. ii. [This sense is unusual and not to be countenanced.]

CON-SULT-A'TION, n.

1. The act of consulting; deliberation of two or more persons, with a view to some decision. The chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes. – Mark xv.
2. The persons who consult together; a number of persons seeking mutually each other's opinions and advice; a council for deliberation; as, a consultation of physicians was called. – Wiseman. Writ of consultation, in law, a writ awarded by a superior court, to return a cause which had been removed by prohibition from the court Christian, to its original jurisdiction; so called because the judges on consultation find the prohibition ill founded. – Blackstone.

CON-SUL'TA-TIVE, a.

Having the privilege of consulting. – Bramhall.

CON-SULT'ED, pp.

Asked; inquired of, for opinion or advice; regarded.

CON-SULT'ER, n.

One who consults, or asks counsel or information; as, a consulter with familiar spirits. Deut. xviii.

CON-SULT'ING, ppr.

Asking advice; seeking information; deliberating and inquiring mutually; regarding.

CON-SUM'A-BLE, a. [See Consume.]

That may be consumed; possible to be destroyed, dissipated, wasted or spent; as, asbestos is not consumable by fire. – Wilkins. The importation and exportation of consumable commodities. – Locke.

CON-SUME', v.i.

To waste away slowly; to be exhausted. Their flesh … their eyes … their tongue shall consume away. – Zech. xiv. The wicked shall perish … they shall consume. – Ps. xxxvii.

CON-SUME', v.t. [L. consumo; con and sumo, to take. So in English we say, it takes up time, that is, it consumes time. Sp. consumir; It. consumare; Fr. consumer. Class Sm.]

1. To destroy, by separating the parts of a thing, by decomposition, as by fire, or by eating, devouring; and annihilating the form of a substance. Fire consumes wood, coal, stubble; animals consume flesh and vegetables.
2. To destroy by dissipating or by use; to expend; to waste; to squander; as, to consume an estate. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. James iv.
3. To spend; to cause to pass away, as time; as, to consume the day in idleness. Their days did he consume in vanity. – Ps. lxxviii.
4. To cause to disappear; to waste slowly. My flesh is consumed away. – Job xxxviii.
5. To destroy; to bring to utter ruin; to exterminate. Let me alone … that I may consume them. – Ex. xxxii.

CON-SUM'ED, pp.

Wasted; burnt up; destroyed; dissipated; squandered; expended.

CON-SUM'ER, n.

One who consumes, spends, wastes or destroys; that which consumes.

CON-SUM'ING, ppr.

1. Burning; wasting; destroying; expending; eating; devouring.
2. adj. That destroys. The Lord thy God is a consuming fire. – Deut. iv.

CON-SUM'MATE, a.

Complete; perfect; carried to the utmost extent or degree; as, consummate greatness or felicity.

CON'SUM-MATE, v.t. [L. consummo, consummatus; con and summo, from summa, sum; Fr. consommer; Sp. consumar. See Sum.]

To end; to finish by completing what was intended; to perfect; to bring or carry to the utmost point or degree. He had a mind to consummate the happiness of the day. – Tatler.

CON'SUM-MA-TED, pp.

Completed; perfected; ended.

CON-SUM'MATE-LY, adv.

Completely; perfectly. – Warton.

CON'SUM-MA-TING, ppr.

Completing; accomplishing; perfecting.

CON-SUM-MA'TION, n. [L. consummatio.]

1. Completion; end; perfection of a work, process or scheme. – Addison.
2. The end or completion of the present system of things; the end of the world. – Hooker.
3. Death; the end of life. – Shak. Consummation of marriage, the most intimate union of the sexes, which completes the connubial relation.

CON-SUMP'TION, n. [L. consumptio. See Consume.]

1. The act of consuming; waste; destruction by burning, eating, devouring, scattering, dissipation, slow decay, or by passing away, as time; as, the consumption of fuel, of food, of commodities or estate, of time, &c.
2. The state of being wasted, or diminished. Etna and Vesuvius have not suffered any considerable diminution or consumption. – Woodward.
3. In medicine, a wasting of flesh; a gradual decay or diminution of the body; a word of extensive signification. But particularly, the disease called phthisis pulmonalis, pulmonic consumption, a disease seated in the lungs, attended with a hectic fever, cough, &c.

CON-SUMP'TIVE, a.

1. Destructive; wasting; exhausting; having the quality of consuming, or dissipating; as, a long consumptive war. – Addison.
2. Affected with a consumption or pulmonic disease, as consumptive lungs; or inclined to a consumption; tending to the phthisis pulmonalis; applied to the incipient state of the disease, or to a constitution predisposed to it.