Forms: 5 -sommacion, -sumacyon, 5–6 -su(m)macion, 6 -acyon, 6– consummation. [a. OF. consommation (-somation, -sumation), ad. L. consummātiōn-em, n. of action f. consummāre to complete, CONSUMMATE. Finally conformed to the L. spelling.]
1. The action of completing, accomplishing, fulfilling, finishing, or ending.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., II. vii. (1495), 34. After purgacion foloweth illumynacion, perfeccion and consummacion.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 198. All that hath herd this consummacion Of this pagent.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, v. (1890), 22. For the consommacion of the said sacrifyce.
1546. in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. iii. 129. The ereccion & consumacion of the newe hospytall in Smythfeld for the pore.
a. 1665. J. Goodwin, Filled w. the Spirit (1867), 202. Between the beginning and consummation or finishing of it.
1667. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 467. He did expect to hear from Bredah the consummation of the peace.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., III. xx. 298. The king … urged the instant consummation of the treaty.
b. The completion of marriage by sexual intercourse.
c. 1530. in Fiddes, Life Wolsey (1726), II. 171. Nothing was so muche desyred of bothe there parents, as the Consummation of the said act.
1548. Act 2–3 Edw. VI., c. 23 § 2. Sentence for Matrimony, commanding Solemnization, Cohabitation, Consummation and Tractation as becometh Man and Wife to have.
1706. Farquhar, Recr. Officer, I. i. She would have the wedding before consummation.
1879. M. Pattison, Milton, 58. The suggestion … is that Milton’s young wife refused him the consummation of the marriage.
2. Completion, conclusion, as an event or condition; end; death.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 4. They visyted temples and oracles unto the consummacion of their dayes. Ibid. (1483), Cato, H vij. Dethe is consumacyon and ende of al payne and laboure.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., IV. ii. 280. Quiet consumation haue, And renowned be thy graue.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. ix. 217. [They] held that it put a total Consummation unto things in this lower World.
1795. Southey, Vis. Maid Orleans, I. 180. This is his consummation!
1840. Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile. Death’s consummation crowns completed life.
c. esp. in consummation of the world, of all things, etc. (Sometimes with the subsidiary notion of accomplishment of a ‘dispensation,’ or of destruction.)
1541. Becon, News out of Heaven, Wks. (1843), 55. He will be with you even to the very consummation and end of the world.
1585. Abp. Sandys, Serm. (1841), 352. The time … of the general consummation of all things is left uncertain.
1629. Symmer, Spir. Posie, I. vi. 23. At the consummation of the world, when the number of the Elect shall be perfected.
1777. Priestley, Matt. & Spir. (1782), I. xvii. 201. At the general consummation of all things.
1875. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. I. iii. 45. The decline of our System, and its future consummation by fire.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 262. Anything short of the final consummation.
3. The action of perfecting; the condition of full and perfect development, perfection, acme.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 14 b. The consummacyon & perfeccyon of holynes.
1552. Bk. Com. Prayer, Burial. That we … may haue our perfect consummacion and blisse.
1713. Steele, Englishman, No. 10. 64. It is the Consummation of all Crimes to be impudent.
1827. Hare, Guesses, Ser. II. (1873), 548. The consummation of Heathen virtue.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 93. Such return … is the consummation of the creature.
4. A condition in which desires, aims, and tendencies are fulfilled; crowning or fitting end; goal.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. i. 63. ’Tis a consummation Deuoutly to be wish’d.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xi. The probability of Miss Nickleby’s arriving at this happy consummation.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, II. ii. (1872), 91. Radicalism … had come to its Consummation, and vanished from him in a tragic manner.
1886. Morley, Pattison’s Mem., Crit. Misc. III. 137. Nothing … was done towards making the desired consummation a certainty.
