rapacious

comparative more rapacious · superlative most rapacious

1. alsofigurativelyVoracious; avaricious.

   The rapacious maw of our despair

   2022, “Nevermore”, performed by Lamb of God

   3 more examples

   To presume a want of motives for such contests [of power between states] as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.

   1787, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 6: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States

   Relations between the Waveney Valley Railway and the E.C.R. [Eastern Counties Railway] soon became strained, because of the rapacious attitude adopted by the latter, and to the mismanagement which it displayed in working the smaller company's line.

   1952 June, B. D. J. Walsh, “The Waveney Valley Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 365

   Big Tech companies, on the other hand, have proven themselves to be rapacious capitalists—they take as much as they can and ask for permission later.

   2021 March 16, Noam Cohen, “Wikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay Up”, in Wired, →ISSN

   Synonyms: acquisitive, avaricious, cormorant, covetous, edacious, esurient, grasping, greedy

2. Given to taking by force or plundering; aggressively greedy.

   The natives were driven out by rapacious colonists.

   1 more example

   A Prince […] sooner becomes hated by being rapacious and by interfering with the property and with the women of his subjects, than in any other way.

   1910, Niccolò Machiavelli, “Chapter XIX”, in Ninian Hill Thomson, transl., The Prince

3. usually a birdSubsisting off live prey.

   Even the rapacious birds appeared to comprehend the nature of the ceremony, for […] they once more began to make their airy circuits above the place[…]

   1827, James Fenimore Cooper, “Chapter XIII”, in The Prairie

   Synonyms: predacious, predatory