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Voracious vs Alacrity - What's the difference?

voracious | alacrity |

As an adjective voracious

is wanting or devouring great quantities of food.

As a noun alacrity is

eagerness; liveliness; enthusiasm.

voracious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Wanting or devouring great quantities of food.
  • * 1719 , , Robinson Crusoe , ch. 6:
  • I never had so much as . . . one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages.
  • * 1867 , , ch. 45:
  • The old man was up, betimes, next morning, and waited impatiently for the appearance of his new associate, who after a delay that seemed interminable, at length presented himself, and commenced a voracious assault on the breakfast.
  • * 1910 , , "The Human Drift":
  • Retreating before stronger breeds, hungry and voracious , the Eskimo has drifted to the inhospitable polar regions.
  • Having a great appetite for anything (e.g., a voracious reader ).
  • * 1922 , , ch. 7:
  • If he carried chiefly his appetite, a zeal for tiled bathrooms, a conviction that the Pullman car is the acme of human comfort, and a belief that it is proper to tip waiters, taxicab drivers, and barbers, but under no circumstances station agents and ushers, then his Odyssey will be replete with good meals and bad meals, bathing adventures, compartment-train escapades, and voracious demands for money.
  • * 2005 , Nathan Thornburgh, " The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies," Time , 29 Aug.:
  • Methodical and voracious , these hackers wanted all the files they could find.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * voraciously * voraciousness * voracity

    alacrity

    English

    Noun

    (alacrities)
  • Eagerness; liveliness; enthusiasm.
  • * 1837 , , The Pickwick Papers , ch. 12:
  • "I'll get into the clothes this minute, if they're here," said Sam, with great alacrity .
  • * 1922 , , The Glimpses of the Moon , ch. 24:
  • This evening, however, he was struck by the beaming alacrity of the aide-de-camp's greeting.
  • Promptness; speed.
  • * 1849 , , "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience":
  • Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
  • * 1902 , , Heart of Darkness , Part 1:
  • He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity .

    Synonyms

    * (eagerness) avidity, eagerness, enthusiasm, willingness * (promptness) briskness, celerity, haste, promptness, quickness, swiftness

    Antonyms

    * (eagerness) apathy, disinclination, hesitance, indifference, reluctance

    References