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View synonyms for rapacious

rapacious

[ ruh-pey-shuhs ]

adjective

  1. given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed.
  2. inordinately greedy; predatory; extortionate:

    a rapacious disposition.

    Synonyms: grasping, voracious, ravenous

    Antonyms: generous

  3. (of animals) subsisting by the capture of living prey; predacious.


rapacious

/ rəˈpæsɪtɪ; rəˈpeɪʃəs /

adjective

  1. practising pillage or rapine
  2. greedy or grasping
  3. (of animals, esp birds) subsisting by catching living prey
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • rapacity, noun
  • raˈpaciously, adverb
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Other Words From

  • ra·pa·cious·ly adverb
  • ra·pac·i·ty [r, uh, -, pas, -i-tee], ra·pa·cious·ness noun
  • un·ra·pa·cious adjective
  • un·ra·pa·cious·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of rapacious1

First recorded in 1645–55; from Latin rapāci- (stem of rapāx “greedy,” akin to rapere “to seize”; rape 1 ) + -ous
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Word History and Origins

Origin of rapacious1

C17: from Latin rapāx grasping, from rapere to seize
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Synonym Study

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Example Sentences

He capitalized on resentment of an elite enriching themselves in a rapacious economy.

Social media platforms, for better or worse, are the principal mediums for athletes to communicate “what they believe in,” whether it’s protecting the Arctic from the rapacious oil industry, or the subtle eroticism of the burrito.

Big Tech companies, on the other hand, have proven themselves to be rapacious capitalists—they take as much as they can and ask for permission later.

Democratically elected majorities, conservatives point out, pose just as much, or even more of a threat to personal security and individual right—especially the right to property—as rapacious kings or greedy elites.

From Time

The wheeling-dealing sometimes goes too far—or at least offends someone more rapacious.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room—the rapacious advance of online bookselling, personified by Amazon.

A couple of factors, both internal and environmental, are at play when such rapacious violence spreads like a brushfire.

Does the idea of watching a doe-eyed woman wolf down rapacious amounts of food make you mad with desire?

These early rehearsal scenes see Simmons go for the jugular, verbally undressing his students with rapacious license.

And they have been found co-operating against a particular rapacious Mahajan.

In the time of nidification the most feeble birds will assault the most rapacious.

Take a fair and noble mistress, one younger, less rapacious.

He had to urge the Council to stay the Commissioners at Sherborne, whose rapacious activity had again awoke.

Bishoprics, once conferred for wisdom and piety, had become prizes for the rapacious and ambitious.

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raprapacity