To devour means to eat something quickly and hungrily, consuming it with intense appetite or enthusiasm. When you're truly starving after a long day, you might devour your dinner instead of eating it slowly. A wolf devours its prey, tearing into it with powerful jaws.

The word captures something beyond just eating: there's an eagerness, an intensity, almost a fierceness to it. You wouldn't say someone devours a single grape, but you might watch them devour an entire pizza.

The word also describes consuming things other than food. A curious reader might devour a book, reading it so eagerly that hours pass without notice. Someone passionate about learning devours every fact they can find about dinosaurs or Ancient Egypt. When a wildfire devours a forest, it consumes everything in its path with frightening speed and power.

The related noun is devourer: someone or something that devours. Whether it's food, knowledge, or experience, to devour something means to consume it completely, hungrily, and with total focus.