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  1. rapacious love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Taking by force; plundering.
  2. adj. Greedy; ravenous. See Synonyms at voracious.
  3. adj. Subsisting on live prey.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. 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.
  2. Of a grasping nature or character; characterized by rapacity; immoderately exacting; extortionate: as, a rapacious disposition; rapacious demands.
  3. 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

  1. adj. Voracious; avaricious.
  2. adj. Given to taking by force or plundering.
  3. adj. of an animal Subsisting off live prey.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force.
  2. adj. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals seized by violence
  3. adj. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy; ravenous; voracious.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. excessively greedy and grasping
  2. adj. devouring or craving food in great quantities
  3. adj. living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey

Etymologies

  1. Perhaps from rapacity + -ous, in any case ultimately from Latin rapax ("grasping, greedy"). (Wiktionary)
  2. From Latin rapāx, rapāc-, from rapere, to seize; see rep- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘rapacious’ has been looked up 4595 times, loved by 21 people, added to 146 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.