rapaciouslyadv.

1642 A. Ross Gods House 12 What shall become of those that have pulled downe the houses of God, and rapaciously devoured the Shew-bread?

1656 S. Holland Don Zara ii. i. 69 The Champion..fed rapaciously, and so gave Lamia good hope of his strenuous activity when Venus should make proof of his procreative part.

1691 E. Taylor J. Behmen's Theosophick Philos. i. 1 If either heat or cold domineer, it becomes rapaciously ruinous.

1711 J. Mackqueen Two Ess. 48 We can..welcome our Friends to a liberal Share of well-furnish'd Tables, without the trouble of free-quarter'd Soldiers rapaciously snatching our Commons.

a1777 S. Foote Nabob (1778) iii. 65 What has been treacherously and rapaciously gained.

1835 Biblical Repertory Jan. 10 That portion of this fund..was either rapaciously seized by the nobles who had conducted the Reformation, or were disposed of by the sovereign in grants of various forms.

1875 W. W. Lloyd Age of Pericles II. xli. 101 It is perfectly intelligible, even from the history of the Courts at Westminster competing rapaciously for business, how willingly the dicasteries and the permanent officials of the courts grasped at wide and ever wider jurisdiction.

1924 Times 1 Apr. 9/2 There is nothing to imply that the leaders with whom he is concerned would have behaved rapaciously had they been tempted.

1954 E. Lyons Our Secret Allies ix. 160 Stalin's slogan amounted to an imperious command to smash and disperse between five and ten million peasant men, women, and children as quickly and rapaciously as possible.

2007 San Diego Tribune (Nexis) 14 Mar. Sure, they look friendly, but make no mistake: The ladybug is a merciless killing machine, rapaciously feasting on live prey.