consumes

Consumes is the third-person singular present form of the verb consume. The verb, from Latin consumere, has several related senses and remains widely used across everyday language, science, and technology. It is typically transitive, taking a direct object, but can also be found in adaptive, metaphorical, or intransitive constructions.

In its core sense, to consume means to eat or drink, i.e., to take into the body or be ingested. It also means to use up or exhaust resources, such as energy, time, money, or materials. For example, a device may consume power, a project may consume resources, and a person may consume a meal. In biological or ecological contexts, a creature may consume prey, and in chemistry or combustion, a fuel can be described as being consumed by a reaction or fire.

In computing and data contexts, a program or process can consume memory, CPU cycles, or bandwidth. In broader usage, the term can be extended metaphorically to indicate something that engrosses attention or interest, as in a topic that consumes the day.

The related noun is consumption, and related terms include consumer (the entity that uses goods and services), consumable (an item intended to be used and then depleted), and consumptive (adjective, or in medicine relating to wasting diseases). See also energy consumption, food consumption, and other domain-specific uses.