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ravenous

ra·ve·nous

UK/ˈɹævənəs/ US/ˈrævʌnʌs/ uncommon

adjective

1.

extremely hungry

  • “they were tired and famished for food and sleep”
  • “a ravenous boy”
  • “the family was starved and ragged”
  • “fell into the esurient embrance of a predatory enemy”
Synonyms
Similar
2.

devouring or craving food in great quantities

  • “edacious vultures”
  • “a rapacious appetite”
  • “ravenous as wolves”
  • “voracious sharks”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English ravenous, ravynous, from Old French ravineus. By surface analysis, ravin + -ous. As seen at raven and ravin, the word comes from a root referring to predation, not from the root referring to ravens (corvid birds); but folk etymology notes that the latter hypothesis seems plausible because ravens can often seem ravenous (especially as nestlings).

Phrases

  • ravenous hunger

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.