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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rapaciousness

Rapacious \Ra*pa"cious\ (r[.a]*p[=a]"sh[u^]s), a. [L. rapax, -acis, from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch away. See Rapid.]

  1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force. `` The downfall of the rapacious and licentious Knights Templar.''
    --Motley.

  2. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals seized by violence; as, a tiger is a rapacious animal; a rapacious bird.

  3. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy; ravenous; voracious; as, rapacious usurers; a rapacious appetite.

    [Thy Lord] redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim
    --Milton.

    Syn: Greedy; grasping; ravenous; voracious. [1913 Webster] -- Ra*pa"cious*ly, adv. -- Ra*pa"cious*ness, n.

Wiktionary
rapaciousness

n. The state of being rapacious; extreme gluttony

WordNet
rapaciousness

n. extreme gluttony [syn: edacity, esurience, rapacity, voracity, voraciousness]

Usage examples of "rapaciousness".

Constantine was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality.

Syrians must have patiently submitted to the lust, the rapaciousness and the cruelty, of the faithful legions of Gaul.

Every art was tried to extort from the people the gold and silver which he scattered with a lavish hand from Persia to France: ^81 his reign was marked by the vicissitudes or rather by the combat, of rapaciousness and avarice, of splendor and poverty.

It had stripped the waffs bare, it was encircling them with a rapaciousness that was almost sentient.