ravenous Hear it!

ravenous Definition

rav·enous (ravə nəs)

adjective

  1. greedily or wildly hungry; voracious or famished
  2. very eager for gratification ravenous for praise
  3. very rapacious

Etymology: ME ravynous < OFr ravinos < ravine: see raven

ravenous Related Forms
rav·enous·ly adverb rav·enous·ness noun
ravenous Synonyms

ravenous

modif.

voracious, omnivorous, starved; see hungry, rapacious 2.

ravenous Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • appetite: With England's finest to add his ravenous appetite for goals, surely the long wait would soon by over.
  • wolf: For Christ commands, " Beware of false prophets who come to you in the clothing of sheep, yet inwardly are ravenous wolves!
  • beast: I have to deal on a day-to-day basis with this ravenous beast [ the Tory press ] .
  • hunger: The blaze crackles with a ravenous hunger, consuming the Hyperion with the enthusiasm of flames for vampires.
  • bird: Less wisps of straw most gone by dusk Ravenous birds will clean the rest.
  • fish: Apart from hordes of ravenous immature fish, brown trout were very, very scarce.

Modifying Another Word

  • all: By lunchtime we had masses of paper to hand and were all ravenous.
  • so: They had no supper but coffee, and the dogs were so ravenous that they were almost devouring each other.
  • absolutely: Alex, who was possibly going to join us, turned up later on, and was absolutely ravenous having had nothing to eat.

Used with adjective complement

  • get: I started cleating the asparagus bed of weeds too, but was happy to pass that over the Chris, as SB getting ravenous.
  • become: After several days without food the tortoise will become ravenous.

Browse dictionary entries near ravenous

  1. Ravenna
  2. ravening
  3. raven
  4. ravelment
  5. raveling
  6. ravel
  7. rave-up
  8. rave
  9. ravage
  10. rauwolfia
  1. raver
  2. ravin
  3. ravine
  4. raving
  5. ravioli
  6. ravish
  7. ravishing
  8. raw
  9. raw bar
  10. raw material