Rapacious

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Rapacious \Ra*pa"cious\ (r[.a]*p[=a]"sh[u^]s), a. [L. rapax,
     -acis, from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch away.
     See {Rapid}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by
        violence; seizing by force. " The downfall of the


        rapacious and licentious Knights Templar." --Motley.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals
        seized by violence; as, a tiger is a rapacious animal; a
        rapacious bird.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy;
        ravenous; voracious; as, rapacious usurers; a rapacious
        appetite.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              [Thy Lord] redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious
              claim                                 --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Greedy; grasping; ravenous; voracious.
          [1913 Webster] -- {Ra*pa"cious*ly}, adv. --
          {Ra*pa"cious*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  rapacious
       adj 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 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