vȯˈrāshəs, vəˈr- adjective
Etymology: Latin vorac-, vorax voracious (from vorare to devour) + English -ious; akin to Old High German querdar bait, Old Norse krās dainty, tidbit, Latin gurges whirlpool, Greek bora food, meat, bibrōskein to devour, Sanskrit girati he swallows
1. : having a huge appetite : greedy , ravenous
the most voracious and demanding of the breakfast-food public — the kiddies — Bennett Cerf
because so many normal joys had been denied him he was all the more voracious for pleasure — Mary Webb
2. : excessively eager : avid , insatiable
a voracious appetite
his voracious love of life — Time
the voracious reading odysseys of your childhood — J.H.Burns
Synonyms:
voracious , gluttonous , ravenous , ravening , and rapacious agree in meaning excessively greedy. voracious implies a gorging with anything that satisfies an excessive appetite
a voracious shark decimating a school of fish
pay taxes to voracious governments — W.F.Hambly
a voracious reader of poetry — Elinor Wylie
gluttonous emphasizes greediness and delight in excessive eating
his gluttonous appetite for food, praise, pleasure — A.L.Guérard
his sickness was inflamed by a gluttonous debauch — J.R.Green
gluttonous for jewels — John Gunther
ravenous implies abnormally great hunger and suggests violent, grasping methods of dealing with food or whatever satisfies the hunger
a child with a ravenous desire for candy
this fish is remarkably ravenous; nothing living that he can seize upon escapes his jaws — William Bartram
mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them — Oscar Wilde
ravening comes closer to rapacious in suggesting a violent, predatory seizing for oneself
the hordes of ravening ants — William Beebe
stood off the other ravening creditors — R.L.Taylor
the jaeger, a rapacious tyrant, plays a role as villainous as that of the sparrow hawk and the prairie falcon farther inland — American Guide Series: Washington
a rapacious divorcee on the prowl — Helen Howe
a mind rapacious for all knowledge