consummate

Etymology

From Latin consummatus, past participle of consummare (“to sum up, finish, complete”), from com- (“together”) + summa (“the sum”) (see sum, summation).

Pronunciation

Adjective

• (UK) enPR: kŏn'səmət, kŏn'syo͝omət, kənsŭm'ĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnsəmət/, /ˈkɒnsjʊmət/, /kənˈsʌmɪt/
• (US) enPR: kŏn'səmət, kənsŭm'ĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnsəmət/, /kənˈsʌmɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

• (UK) enPR: kŏn'səmāt, kŏn'syo͝omāt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnsəmeɪt/, /ˈkɒnsjʊmeɪt/
• (US) enPR: kŏn'səmāt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnsəmeɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

consummate (comparative more consummate, superlative most consummate)

1. Complete in every detail, perfect, absolute.
   • Addison

     A man of perfect and consummate virtue.

   • 1900, Guy Wetmore Carryl, "The Singular Sangfroid of Baby Bunting",

     Belinda Bellonia Bunting//Behaved like a consummate loon

   • 1880, Georges Bernard Shaw, The Irrational Knot, Chapter VII,

     […] Marmaduke, who had the consummate impudence to reply that […]

2. Highly skilled and experienced; fully qualified.
   • a consummate sergeant
   • Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Section IV,

     The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, […] ; thus it is in his power to control success.

Verb

consummate (third-person singular simple present consummates, present participle consummating, simple past and past participle consummated)

1. (transitive) To bring (a task, project, goal etc.) to completion; to accomplish.
   • 1921, James Truslow Adams, The Founding of New England, chapter III:

     Although it was agreed by all that discovery must be consummated by possession and use, […]

   • 1922, Havelock Ellis, Against the Grain, translation of À rebours by Joris-Karl Huysmans, Chapter X:

     In one word, in perfumery the artist completes and consummates the original natural odour, […]

2. (transitive) To make perfect, achieve, give the finishing touch.
3. (transitive) To make (a marriage) complete by engaging in first sexual intercourse.

   After the reception, he escorted her to the honeymoon suite to consummate their marriage.

   • 1890, Giovanni Boccacio, translated by James MacMullen Rigg, The Decameron, Novel 2, part 10,

     […] in the essay which he made the very first night to serve her so as to consummate the marriage he made a false move, […]

4. (intransitive) To become perfected, receive the finishing touch.

Further reading

• consummate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• consummate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Verb

consummāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of consummō