1. in a manner relating to or characteristic of consumption (the disease tuberculosis); in a way that suggests or exhibits the symptoms of tuberculosis
Usage: archaic or literary; medical/historical context
2. in a manner that consumes or uses up resources, energy, or material excessively
Usage: rare

Examples

• The patient looked consumptively pale and thin after months of illness.
• She spoke in a consumptively weak voice that barely carried across the room.
• The 19th-century novel portrayed the heroine as consumptively fragile and doomed.
• He coughed consumptively throughout the winter months.
• The character's consumptively gaunt appearance reflected the ravages of disease.