 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
rapacious
adjective
1: living by preying on other animals especially by catching
living prey; "a predatory bird"; "the rapacious wolf";
"raptorial birds"; "ravening wolves"; "a vulturine
taste for offal" [syn: {predatory}, {raptorial}, {ravening},
{vulturine}, {vulturous}]
2: excessively greedy and grasping; "a rapacious divorcee on
the prowl"; "ravening creditors"; "paying taxes to
voracious governments" [syn: {ravening}, {voracious}]
3: devouring or craving food in great quantities; "edacious
vultures"; "a rapacious appetite"; "ravenous as wolves";
"voracious sharks" [syn: {edacious}, {esurient}, {ravening},
{ravenous}, {voracious}, {wolfish}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rapacious \Ra*pa"cious\ (r[.a]*p[=a]"sh[u^]s), adjective [L. rapax,
-acis, from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch away.
See {Rapid}.]
1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by
violence; seizing by force. '' The downfall of the
rapacious and licentious Knights Templar.'' --Motley.
2. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals
seized by violence; as, a tiger is a rapacious animal; a
rapacious bird.
3. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy;
ravenous; voracious; as, rapacious usurers; a rapacious
appetite.
[Thy Lord] redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious
claim --Milton.
Syn: Greedy; grasping; ravenous; voracious.
-- {Ra*pa"cious*ly}, adverb --
{Ra*pa"cious*ness}, noun
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "rapacious":
Apician, a hog for, acquisitive, all-devouring, all-engulfing,
avaricious, avid, bloodsucking, bolting, bottomless, coveting,
covetous, cramming, crapulent, crapulous, devouring, edacious,
esurient, extortionate, ferocious, fierce, glutting, gluttonizing,
gluttonous, gobbling, gorging, grabby, grasping, greedy, gulping,
guttling, guzzling, hoggish, hyperphagic, insatiable, insatiate,
intemperate, limitless, lupine, mercenary, miserly, money-hungry,
money-mad, omnivorous, overgreedy, parasitic, piggish, polyphagic,
predacious, predatory, quenchless, raptorial, ravening, ravenous,
sharkish, slakeless, sordid, stuffing, swinish, unappeasable,
unappeased, unquenchable, unsated, unsatisfied, unslakeable,
unslaked, usurious, venal, voracious, vulturine, vulturous,
wolfing, wolfish
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