consumer

Etymology

consume + -er

noun

1. One who, or that which, consumes.
   But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal. 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion
2. (economics) Someone who trades money for goods or services as an individual.
   This new system favours the consumer over the producer.
3. (by extension) The consumer base of a product, service or business.
   Our consumers are upwardly mobile and middle-class.
4. (ecology) An organism (heterotroph) that uses other organisms for food in order to gain energy.