verbivorous

comparative more verbivorous · superlative most verbivorous

1. Consuming or devouring words.

   Tale of some "verbivorous" mice who nibble all the biggest words off the page of the professor's book.

   1969, Elementary English, volume 46, page 464

   3 more examples

   In being verbivorous, humans are unique among the earth's creatures. We have a different kind of life than nonverbal animals, a kind of life that we can call generically “spiritual.”

   1997, Robert Campbell Roberts, Mark R. Talbot, Limning the Psyche: Explorations in Christian Psychology, page 81

   Resembling the moose he describes, Thoreau meandered through lexicons, munching etymologies like some great verbivorous animal.

   2000, Michael West, Transcendental Wordplay

   The verbivorous author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Carroll evinced a prodigious talent for merging two words and beheading parts of one or both.

   2012, Richard Lederer, Amazing Words