Obs. [ad. late L. comestiōn-em eating, devouring, f. comedĕre: see prec.] Eating; also fig., the devouring action of fire.
a. 1620. J. Dyke, Sel. Serm. (1640), 263. There must be a manducation, a comestion of the Word.
a. 1625. Boys, Wks. (1630), 701. Neither was this eating … a seeming only to take bread, and fish, and honie, but it was a true comestion.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., xii. 12. The mouth whose office was comestion or assumption of solid aliment.
1654. Ashmole, Chem. Coll., 107. Let it be delivered to insatiable Comestion, that being by degrees … burnt into Ashes, etc.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Comestion (comestio), an eating or devouring.
