Adjacent Words

Voracious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VORA'CIOUS, a. [L. vorax, from voro, to devour; Heb. to clear away, to consume; Gr. food.]
1. Greedy for eating; ravenous; very hungry; as a voracious man or appetite.
2. Rapacious; eager to devour; as voracious animals.
3. Ready to swallow up; as a voracious gulf or whirlpool.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: excessively greedy and grasping; "a rapacious divorcee on the prowl"; "ravening creditors"; "paying taxes to voracious governments" [syn: rapacious, ravening, voracious]
2: devouring or craving food in great quantities; "edacious vultures"; "a rapacious appetite"; "ravenous as wolves"; "voracious sharks" [syn: edacious, esurient, rapacious, ravening, ravenous, voracious, wolfish]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin vorac-, vorax, from vorare to devour; akin to Old English ?cweorran to guzzle, Latin gurges whirlpool, Greek bibr?skein to devour Date: 1635 1. having a huge appetite ; ravenous 2. excessively eager ; insatiable <a voracious reader> • voraciously adverb • voraciousness noun Synonyms: voracious, gluttonous, ravenous, rapacious mean excessively greedy. voracious applies especially to habitual gorging with food or drink <teenagers are often voracious eaters>. gluttonous applies to one who delights in eating or acquiring things especially beyond the point of necessity or satiety <an admiral who was gluttonous for glory>. ravenous implies excessive hunger and suggests violent or grasping methods of dealing with food or with whatever satisfies an appetite <a nation with a ravenous lust for territorial expansion>. rapacious often suggests excessive and utterly selfish acquisitiveness or avarice <rapacious developers indifferent to environmental concerns>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 greedy in eating, ravenous. 2 very eager in some activity (a voracious reader). Derivatives: voraciously adv. voraciousness n. voracity n. Etymology: L vorax f. vorare devour

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Voracious Vo*ra"cious, a. [L. vorax, -acis, fr. vorare to devour; akin to Gr. ? meat, food, ? to devour, Skr. gar. Cf. Devour.] Greedy in eating; very hungry; eager to devour or swallow; ravenous; gluttonous; edacious; rapacious; as, a voracious man or appetite; a voracious gulf or whirlpool. --Dampier. -- Vo*ra"cious*ly, adv. -- Vo*ra"cious*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe a person, or their appetite for something, as voracious, you mean that they want a lot of something. (LITERARY) Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector. ...the band's voracious appetite for fun. = insatiable ADJ: usu ADJ n • voraciously He read voraciously. ADV

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Ravenous, greedy, rapacious, hungry.

Moby Thesaurus

Apician, a hog for, acquisitive, all-devouring, ardent, avaricious, avid, bolting, bottomless, cormorant, coveting, covetous, cramming, crapulent, crapulous, desirous, devoted, devouring, dog-hungry, eager, earnest, edacious, empty, enormous, enthusiastic, esurient, famished, famishing, fasting, fervent, fervid, glutting, gluttonizing, gluttonous, gobbling, gorging, grabby, grasping, greedy, gulping, guttling, guzzling, half-famished, half-starved, hoggish, hungering, hungry, hyperphagic, insatiable, insatiate, intemperate, limitless, mercenary, miserly, money-hungry, money-mad, omnivorous, overgreedy, passionate, peckish, piggish, pinched with hunger, polyphagic, predacious, prodigious, quenchless, rapacious, ravening, ravenous, satiating, sating, sharp-set, slakeless, sordid, starved, starving, stuffing, surfeiting, swinish, thirsty, unappeasable, unappeased, uncontrollable, uncontrolled, unfilled, unquenchable, unsated, unsatisfied, unslakeable, unslaked, venal, wolfing, wolfish, zealous