ravenous
/ˈrav(ə)nəs
/adjective
1Extremely hungry: I’d been out all day and was ravenous...
- At that spot, they found a dead deer, still steaming, and took hungry, ravenous bites out of it.
- I am secretly a ravenous animal for compliments
- Mr. Numan walked in attracted by the smells of fine dinner on the table, collapsed at his chair, and ate some food like a ravenous animal.
Synonyms
very hungry, starving, starved, famished
informal with one's stomach cleaving to one's backbone
rare sharp-set, esurient
1.1(Of hunger or need) very great; voracious: a ravenous appetite...
- Arrive before you have built up a ravenous hunger.
- The size of a hornet hive grows quickly as the season progresses - and so does the ravenous hunger of the young hornets.
- He didn't even notice the ravenous hunger that made his stomach rumble in silent agony.
Synonyms
voracious, insatiable, ravening, wolfish;
greedy, gluttonous, gannet-like
literary insatiate
rare edacious
Derivatives
ravenously
/ adverb ...- As we eat ravenously, chipmunks scavenge for crumbs.
- She ate ravenously, as if unaccustomed to plentiful food - as indeed she was.
- And inevitably, watching these shows makes you ravenously hungry.
ravenousness
- Within this unapologetic ravenousness, modestly scaled galleries remain among the few institutions that offer the hope of artistic refuge, drawing in enough of the locals to support a token sense of regionalism.
- By impartially observing my ravenousness and making light of my food desires, I am dissolving my mental hunger pangs.
- As their ravenousness for power grew, their cities began to fall apart.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French ravineus, from raviner 'to ravage' (see raven2).