rapacious

Perhaps from rapacity +‎ -ous, in any case ultimately from Latin rapax (“grasping, greedy”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɹəˈpeɪ.ʃəs/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

rapacious (comparative more rapacious, superlative most rapacious)

1. Voracious; avaricious.
   • 1787, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 6: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States:

     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.

2. Given to taking by force or plundering; aggressively greedy.
   • 1910, Niccolò Machiavelli (translated by Ninian Hill Thomson), The Prince, Chapter XIX:

     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.

3. (of an animal, usually a bird) Subsisting off live prey.
   • 1827, James Fenimore Cooper, The Prairie, Chapter XIII:

     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 [...]

• The use of this term for animals other than birds is dated.

• See also Thesaurus:greedy

• rapaciously
• rapaciousness
• rapacity