rapacious

ra·pa·cious

adj \rə-ˈpā-shəs\

Definition of RAPACIOUS

1

: excessively grasping or covetous

2

: living on prey

3

: ravenous <a rapacious appetite>

— ra·pa·cious·ly adverb

— ra·pa·cious·ness noun

Examples of RAPACIOUS

1. <nothing livens things up like a whole team of rapacious basketball players descending upon the pizza parlor>
2. <rapacious mammals, such as coyotes, foxes, and bobcats>

Origin of RAPACIOUS

Latin rapac-, rapax, from rapere to seize — more at rapid

First Known Use: 1651

Related to RAPACIOUS

Synonyms: edacious, esurient, gluttonous, greedy, hoggish, piggish, voracious, ravenous, swinish

Related Words: hearty, wolfish; devouring, gobbling, gorging, gormandizing, gulping; insatiable, unquenchable, unslakable; empty, famished, hungry, peckish [chiefly British], starved, starving; malnourished, underfed, undernourished

Near Antonyms: content, full, glutted, sated, satiated, satisfied, stuffed

see all synonyms and antonyms

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See Synonym Discussion at voracious

Rhymes with RAPACIOUS

audacious, bodacious, capacious, cetaceous, crustaceous, curvaceous, drupaceous, edacious, fallacious, flirtatious, fugacious, hellacious, herbaceous, loquacious, mendacious, micaceous, pomaceous, predaceous, pugnacious, rosaceous, sagacious, salacious, sebaceous, sequacious, setaceous, tenacious, testaceous, tufaceous, ungracious, veracious, vinaceous, voracious