rapacious


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ra·pa·cious

 (rə-pā′shəs)
adj.
1. Having or showing a strong or excessive desire to acquire money or possess things; greedy: "dishonest utilities and rapacious energy traders" (Paul Roberts).
2. Living by killing prey, especially in large numbers: rapacious coyotes.
3. Taking things by force; plundering: rapacious pirates.

[From Latin rapāx, rapāc-, from rapere, to seize; see rep- in Indo-European roots.]

ra·pa′cious·ly adv.
ra·pac′i·ty (rə-păs′ĭ-tē), ra·pa′cious·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rapacious

(rəˈpeɪʃəs)
adj
1. practising pillage or rapine
2. greedy or grasping
3. (Zoology) (of animals, esp birds) subsisting by catching living prey
[C17: from Latin rapāx grasping, from rapere to seize]
raˈpaciously adv
rapacity, raˈpaciousness n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ra•pa•cious

(rəˈpeɪ ʃəs)

adj.
1. given to plundering.
2. inordinately greedy; predatory.
3. (of animals) subsisting by the capture of living prey; predacious.
[1645–55; < Latin rapāx, s. rapāc- greedy, adj. derivative of rapere to seize (see rape1); see -acious]
ra•pa′cious•ly, adv.
ra•pac′i•ty (-ˈpæs ɪ ti) ra•pa′cious•ness, n.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj.1.rapacious - living by preying on other animals especially by catching living preyrapacious - 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"
aggressive - having or showing determination and energetic pursuit of your ends; "an aggressive businessman"; "an aggressive basketball player"; "he was aggressive and imperious; positive in his convictions"; "aggressive drivers"
2.rapacious - excessively greedy and grasping; "a rapacious divorcee on the prowl"; "ravening creditors"; "paying taxes to voracious governments"
acquisitive - eager to acquire and possess things especially material possessions or ideas; "an acquisitive mind"; "an acquisitive society in which the craving for material things seems never satisfied"
3.rapacious - devouring or craving food in great quantitiesrapacious - devouring or craving food in great quantities; "edacious vultures"; "a rapacious appetite"; "ravenous as wolves"; "voracious sharks"
gluttonous - given to excess in consumption of especially food or drink; "over-fed women and their gluttonous husbands"; "a gluttonous debauch"; "a gluttonous appetite for food and praise and pleasure"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

rapacious

adjective greedy, grasping, insatiable, ravenous, preying, plundering, predatory, voracious, marauding, extortionate, avaricious, wolfish, usurious He had a rapacious appetite for bird's nest soup.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

rapacious

adjective
Having an insatiable appetite for an activity or pursuit:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
جَشِع، نَهِم
chamtivý
grisk
gráîugur
grobuoniškas
alkatīgs
aç gözlügözü doymaz

rapacious

[rəˈpeɪʃəs] ADJrapaz
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

rapacious

adj, rapaciously
advhabgierig
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

rapacious

[rəˈpeɪʃəs] adj (frm) → rapace
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

rapacious

(rəˈpeiʃəs) adjective
greedy (especially for money); eager to seize as much as possible.
raˈpaciously adverb
raˈpaciousness noun
raˈpacity (-ˈpӕsə-) noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
slowly it floats more and more away, the water round it torn and splashed by the insatiate sharks, and the air above vexed with rapacious flights of screaming fowls, whose beaks are like so many insulting poniards in the whale.
I have a recollection of large, unbending women with great noses and rapacious eyes, who wore their clothes as though they were armour; and of little, mouse-like spinsters, with soft voices and a shrewd glance.
Those who so bind themselves, and are not rapacious, ought to be honoured and loved; those who do not bind themselves may be dealt with in two ways; they may fail to do this through pusillanimity and a natural want of courage, in which case you ought to make use of them, especially of those who are of good counsel; and thus, whilst in prosperity you honour them, in adversity you do not have to fear them.
Over the whole slow process of levelling the Mounds, Silas had kept watch with rapacious eyes.
Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
To presume a want of motives for such contests as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious. To look for a continuation of harmony between a number of independent, unconnected sovereignties in the same neighborhood, would be to disregard the uniform course of human events, and to set at defiance the accumulated experience of ages.
He had taken, without hesitation, without reflection even, the principal apartment which the hotelier had pointed out to him with a rapacious aim, very praiseworthy, some will say, very reprehensible will say others, if they admit that Cropole was a physiognomist and judged people at first sight.
From the interior came Indians with subtle poisons, naked bodies, and painted idols; from the sea came vengeful Spaniards and rapacious Portuguese; exposed to all these enemies (though the climate proved wonderfully kind and the earth abundant) the English dwindled away and all but disappeared.
How long she hung there she never knew, but finally a little strength returned to her, and presently she realized that it was a pendant creeper hanging low from a jungle tree upon the bank that had saved her from the river's rapacious maw.
The "break-bones" is, however, a rapacious bird, for it was observed by some of the officers at Port St.
I will say this much for the nobility: that, tyrannical, murderous, rapacious, and morally rotten as they were, they were deeply and enthusiastically religious.
Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow any thing; and the excessive affection and endurance of the Miss Steeles towards her offspring were viewed therefore by Lady Middleton without the smallest surprise or distrust.