Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Taking by force; plundering.
- adj. Greedy; ravenous. See Synonyms at voracious.
- adj. Subsisting on live prey.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of a grasping habit or disposition; given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed, or obtaining wrongfully or by extortion; predatory; extortionate: as, a rapacious usurer; specifically, of animals, subsisting by capture of living prey; raptorial; predaceous: as, rapacious birds or fishes.
- Of a grasping nature or character; characterized by rapacity; immoderately exacting; extortionate: as, a rapacious disposition; rapacious demands.
- Synonyms Rapacious, Ravenous, Voracious. Rapacious, literally disposed to seize, may note, as the others do not, a distinctive characteristic of certain classes of animals; the tiger is a rapacious animal, but often not ravenous or voracious. Ravenous implies hunger of an extreme sort, shown in eagerness to eat. Voracious means that one eats or is disposed to eat a great deal, without reference to the degree of hunger: a glutton is voracious. Samuel Johnson tended to be a voracious eater, because in his early life he had often gone hungry till be was ravenous.
Wiktionary
- adj. Voracious; avaricious.
- adj. Given to taking by force or plundering.
- adj. of an animal Subsisting off live prey.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force.
- adj. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals seized by violence
- adj. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy; ravenous; voracious.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. excessively greedy and grasping
- adj. devouring or craving food in great quantities
- adj. living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey
Etymologies
- Perhaps from rapacity + -ous, in any case ultimately from Latin rapax ("grasping, greedy"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin rapāx, rapāc-, from rapere, to seize; see rep- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The ruins of the resort are now covered in rapacious island vegetation creeping in from the jungle.”
“Historically, Third World countries have been at the mercy of Western monetary policy, including what many call the rapacious banking ideology perpetrated by the “World Bank.””
New Shoes on Old Debt-Current economic woes have 1980's roots
“Men wanting to inspire the kind of rapacious passion Edward does might try reading the Twilight novels.”
The Huffington Post: Devra Maza: A Twilight Seduction: What Men Can Learn From Edward
“Men wanting to inspire that kind of rapacious passion might try reading the novels by Stephenie Meyer on which the Twilight films are based.”
The Huffington Post: Devra Maza: A Twilight Seduction: What Men Can Learn From Edward
“They don't like the public being reminded that it was GOP stalwart Phil Graham's crusade for the dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act, that was put in place after the Great Depression to protect the financial system from this kind of rapacious Republicanism, that was, in large part, the hole in the greed dam that put the economy where it is today.”
Brian Ross: Why Republicans May Be Barack's Best Buddies at the Stimulus Luau
“Others will be "rapacious," engaging in a vicious competition to seize and exploit new star systems first.”
“Tamar Singer, a freelance anesthesiologist who received several of the letters, calls the city "rapacious" and has stopped working and shopping there.”
“MR. LOCKHART: Jake's going to tell me what "rapacious" means -- no, I know what it means.”
“He denounces "rapacious usury," and says that it was "more than once condemned by the Church," conveniently overlooking the fact that the _usuria_, which was condemned, was not only "rapacious" but was all taking of money for the use of money, all interest on loans -- a condemnation which, if insisted upon by the Church to-day, would soon empty her sanctuaries.”
“The desire to consummate deals is "rapacious" in med-tech, according to Phil Nalbone, an analyst with WedBush Securities.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rapacious’.
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 109 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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GRE Words R
raiment, regale, reprise, renege, reproach, reprobate, reticent, riposte, rubric, rapacious, ruffian, rote and 3 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rapacious.
dharma66 I like how the visuals show birds; namely raptors. However, the bullfrog inhabiting my pond is also rapacious. He seizes small birds and swallows them whole. Aug 2, 2011
kiltwraith 1. given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed.
2. inordinately greedy; predatory; extortionate: a rapacious disposition.
3. (of animals) subsisting by the capture of living prey; predacious. Mar 18, 2009