RAVENING

edacious, esurient, rapacious, ravening, ravenous, voracious, wolfish

(adjective) devouring or craving food in great quantities; “edacious vultures”; “a rapacious appetite”; “ravenous as wolves”; “voracious sharks”

rapacious, ravening, voracious

(adjective) excessively greedy and grasping; “a rapacious divorcee on the prowl”; “ravening creditors”; “paying taxes to voracious governments”

predatory, rapacious, raptorial, ravening, vulturine, vulturous

(adjective) living by preying on other animals especially by catching living prey; “a predatory bird”; “the rapacious wolf”; “raptorial birds”; “ravening wolves”; “a vulturine taste for offal”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Present participle of the obsolete verb raven "to prey".

Adjective

ravening (comparative more ravening, superlative most ravening)

Voracious and greedy.

(archaic) Subject to the voracity of a predator.

Noun

ravening (plural ravenings)

(archaic, literary) Predation (of an animal); voracious eating or consumption.

Eagerness for plunder; rapacity; extortion.

Source: Wiktionary

Rav"en*ing, n.

Definition: Eagerness for plunder; rapacity; extortion. Luke xi. 39.

Rav"en*ing, a.

Definition: Greedily devouring; rapacious; as, ravening wolves.

– Rav"en*ing*ly, adv.

RAVEN

Ra"ven, n. Etym: [AS. hræfn; akin to raaf, G. rabe, OHG. hraban, Icel. hrafn, Dan. ravn, and perhaps to L. corvus, Gr. (Zoöl.)

Definition: A large black passerine bird (Corvus corax), similar to the crow, but larger. It is native of the northern part of Europe, Asia and America, and is noted for its sagacity. Sea raven (Zoöl.), the cormorant.

Ra"ven, a.

Definition: Of the color of the raven; jet black; as, raven curls; raven darkness.

Rav"en, n. Etym: [OF. ravine impetuosity, violence, F. ravine ravine. See Ravine, Rapine.] [Written also ravin, and ravine.]

1. Rapine; rapacity. Ray.

2. Prey; plunder; food obtained by violence.

Rav"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ravened; p. pr. & vb. n. Ravening.] Etym: [Written also ravin, and ravine.]

1. To obtain or seize by violence. Hakewill.

2. To devoir with great eagerness. Like rats that ravin down their proper bane. Shak.

Rav"en, v. i.

Definition: To prey with rapacity; to be greedy; to show rapacity. [Written also ravin, and ravine.] Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. Gen. xlix. 27.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition