ravenous
ravenous
Definition
rav·enous (rav′ə nəs)
adjective
- greedily or wildly hungry; voracious or famished
- very eager for gratification ravenous for praise
- very rapacious
Etymology: ME ravynous < OFr ravinos < ravine: see raven
rav′·enous·ly adverb
rav′·enous·ness noun
ravenous
Synonyms
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
