Part 504

To consummate this business happily. Shak.

Con*sum"mate*ly (?), adv. In a consummate manner; completely. T. Warton.

Con`sum*ma"tion (k&obreve;n`sŭm*mā"shŭn), n. [L. consummatio.] The act of consummating, or the state of being consummated; completion; perfection; termination; end (as of the world or of life).

"'T is a consummation Devoutly to be wished. Shak.

From its original to its consummation. Addison.

Quiet consummation have, And renownÚd be thy grave. Shak.

Consummation of marriage, completion of the connubial relation by actual cohabition.

Con*sum"ma*tive (?), a. Serving to consummate; completing. "The final, the consummative procedure of philosophy." Sir W. Hamilton.

Con*sump"tion (?; 215), n. [L. consumptio: cf. F. consomption.] 1. The act or process of consuming by use, waste, etc.; decay; destruction.

Every new advance of the price to the consumer is a new incentive to him to retrench the quality of his consumption. Burke.

2. The state or process of being consumed, wasted, or diminished; waste; diminution; loss; decay.

3. (Med.) A progressive wasting away of the body; esp., that form of wasting, attendant upon pulmonary phthisis and associated with cough, spitting of blood, hectic fever, etc.; pulmonary phthisis; -- called also pulmonary consumption.

Consumption of the bowels (Med.), inflammation and ulceration of the intestines from tubercular disease.

Syn. -- Decline; waste; decay. See Decline.

Con*sump"tive (?), a. [Cf. F. consomptif.] 1. Of or pertaining to consumption; having the quality of consuming, or dissipating; destructive; wasting.

It [prayer] is not consumptive or our time. Sharp.

A long consumptive war. Addison.

2. (Med.) Affected with, or inclined to, consumption.

The lean, consumptive wench, with coughs decayed. Dryden.

Con*sump"tive, n. One affected with consumption; as, a resort for consumptives.

Con*sump"tive*ly, adv. In a way tending to or indication consumption. Beddoes.

Con*sump"tive*ness, n. A state of being consumptive, or a tendency to a consumption.

Con`ta*bes"cent (?), a. [L. contabescenc, p. pr. of contabescere.] Wasting away gradually. Darwin.

-- Con*ta*bes"cence (#), n.

Con"tact (k&obreve;n"tăkt), n. [L. contactus, fr. contingere, -tactum, to touch on all sides. See Contingent.] 1. A close union or junction of bodies; a touching or meeting.

2. (Geom.) The property of two curves, or surfaces, which meet, and at the point of meeting have a common direction.

3. (Mining) The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock. Raymond.

Contact level, a delicate level so pivoted as to tilt when two parts of a measuring apparatus come into contact with each other; -- used in precise determinations of lengths and in the accurate graduation of instruments.