rapacious
[ruh-pey-shuh s]
- given to seizing for plunder or the satisfaction of greed.
- inordinately greedy; predatory; extortionate: a rapacious disposition.
- (of animals) subsisting by the capture of living prey; predacious.
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Origin of rapacious
Synonyms
See more synonyms for rapacious on Thesaurus.com2. ravenous, voracious, grasping; preying.
Synonym study
2. See avaricious.
Antonyms
2. generous.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for rapacious
Contemporary Examples
Which brings us to the elephant in the room—the rapacious advance of online bookselling, personified by Amazon.
These early rehearsal scenes see Simmons go for the jugular, verbally undressing his students with rapacious license.
‘Whiplash’ Is Sundance’s Hottest Film, A Music-Themed Drama Starring Miles Teller and J.K. SimmonsMarlow Stern
January 24, 2014
And like the medical profession and the food industry, New York has been spoiled by rapacious profit-mongers and hypercapitalists.
Weren’t Those the Bad Old Days? The Poison of New York City NostalgiaMichael Moynihan
January 6, 2014
Mayberry had no banks, however, as squalid and rapacious as mine.
Daddy, How Come You’re Always Broke? Benjamin Anastas’s ‘Too Good to Be True’Benjamin Anastas
October 15, 2012
Assailing her at every turn has been her rapacious political rival, Tony Abbott.
Historical Examples
This his rapacious miserable master had the meanness to take from him.
Journal of a Residence at BagdadAnthony Groves
On the other hand, the officials were inquisitorial and rapacious.
The Siege of BostonAllen French
Every window was open, and from within came sounds of rapacious cleaning.
The Crooked HouseBrandon Fleming
In the time of nidification the most feeble birds will assault the most rapacious.
The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1Gilbert White
What to the rapacious landlord is the widow's last mite but a Fast-Fish?
Moby Dick; or The WhaleHerman Melville
rapacious
- practising pillage or rapine
- greedy or grasping
- (of animals, esp birds) subsisting by catching living prey
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin rapāx grasping, from rapere to seize
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for rapacious
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper