The act or process of devouring; consumption or destruction that is greedy and rapid.
From 'devour' plus '-ment' suffix (forming nouns describing an action or process). Similar to 'payment,' 'movement,' 'government'—all using '-ment' to nominalize verbs.
'-ment' suffix words are often older and more formal-sounding than '-ing' forms—'devourment' sounds more poetic and archaic than 'devouring,' which is why you'd find it in 17th-century poetry but rarely in modern text.
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