ravenous

Borrowed from Old French ravineus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹævənəs/

ravenous (comparative more ravenous, superlative most ravenous)

1. Very hungry.
   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.

2. Grasping; characterized by strong desires.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. IX, Working Aristocracy

     Supply-and-demand? One begins to be weary of such work. Leave all to egoism, to ravenous greed of money, of pleasure, of applause: — it is the Gospel of Despair!

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     Mrs. Michael turned out to be a ravenous, fast-fading woman in a slashed skirt and a low blouse over an unappetising chest. While her husband did things in his shed, where he appeared to live, Pym inexpertly mixed the Yorkshire pudding and fought off her embraces...

• starving (colloquial, figuratively)
• See also Thesaurus:voracious

• ravenously
• ravenousness

• voracious