Home British & World English ravenous

Definition of ravenous in English:

ravenous

adjective

1Extremely hungry.
‘I'd been out all day and was ravenous’
- ‘By contrast, North Americans are ravenous consumers of energy.’
- ‘One candidate knows that if Giblets's rivals are elected president he could transform into a pack of ravenous wolves and eat your children.’
- ‘In 1455 he was returning from a meeting at Doncaster, possibly with the Knights Templars or Grey Friars, when he was set upon by a ravenous wild cat.’
- ‘Mind you, I would be reluctant, to send a ravenous band of travel-worn tourists there for a late-night meal, without first having made a reservation.’
- ‘That's the problem with swimming, it makes me ravenous.’
- ‘Along the way she is accosted by ravenous predators.’
- ‘I am secretly a ravenous animal for compliments’
- ‘Food is served fast and hot, and the waiting staff are tolerant - they barely bat an eyelid at drunk, ravenous students.’
- ‘That description belonged to a pack of ravenous Eagles.’
- ‘Mr. Numan walked in attracted by the smells of fine dinner on the table, collapsed at his chair, and ate some food like a ravenous animal.’
- ‘At night, they advised us to put on our under-bungalow lights and wait for the floorshow of ravenous and strange-looking fish gobbling up plankton just beneath us.’
- ‘Our sallow skin and lean, ravenous eyes (so suggestive of scurvy) give us away.’
- ‘Tartan is pulled across the cold steel floor like an animal being brought to the slaughter by a ravenous predator.’
- ‘I had come off the golf course feeling ravenous, so my choices were influenced by a desire for meat, and lots of it.’
- ‘She not only insists that her husband tell her he loves her every night, but she's ravenous for information about how much he loves her.’
- ‘It is also time that we must take greater care in managing our garbage from ravenous dogs and ravens.’
- ‘At that spot, they found a dead deer, still steaming, and took hungry, ravenous bites out of it.’
- ‘It's the story of a ravenous caterpillar that eats so much he makes himself sick before finally transforming into a beautiful butterfly.’
- ‘It almost goes without saying that she elected not to finish breakfast and was consequently ravenous and difficult by mid-morning.’
- ‘They were always scavenging for the latest hint of gossip as if they were ravenous animals on the trail of a wounded deer.’
very hungry, starving, starved, famished
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1. 1.1 (of hunger or need) very great; voracious.
  ‘a ravenous appetite’
  ‘Sarah and I sat in one corner of the lobby, not exactly having ravenous appetites.’
  ‘But Johnson's latest performance in the red and green of Leicester showed that he still has a ravenous appetite for club rugby.’
  ‘Arrive before you have built up a ravenous hunger.’
  ‘That taste of carnal pleasure unleashed a ravenous appetite.’
  ‘Their ravenous appetite for fellow fish makes them one of the largest fresh water species.’
  ‘You will develop a ravenous appetite when you're not on the bike anyway.’
  ‘Such is the ravenous appetite for good films possessed by those who love them.’
  ‘If you have a ravenous appetite for rock and jazz, this is a must-read.’
  ‘He didn't even notice the ravenous hunger that made his stomach rumble in silent agony.’
  ‘Despite her ravenous hunger, Alicia had to struggle to stifle her gag reflex.’
  ‘The meagre supplies she had brought had not lasted long with her ravenous hunger.’
  ‘The size of a hornet hive grows quickly as the season progresses - and so does the ravenous hunger of the young hornets.’
  ‘At its worst, it combined the naivety of the 1960s, the anti-intellectualism of the 1970s and the ravenous greed of the 1980s.’
  ‘I slept well, and woke with a ravenous appetite for breakfast, as usual.’
  ‘Thanks to a ravenous appetite, he soon reaches 15 feet, and becomes increasingly difficult to hide.’
  ‘The ravenous appetite I worked up instantly disappeared.’
  ‘The wonderful aromas coming from the kitchen made me all the more aware of my ravenous hunger.’
  ‘Others have a ravenous appetite for the glues used to bond carpet to its backing.’
  ‘However, often underestimated is the equally ravenous appetite they have for high-performance data access.’
  ‘Am I, as an entertainment journalist, feeding the public's ravenous appetite for more celebrity?’
  voracious, insatiable, ravening, wolfish
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