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Voracious vs Rapacious - What's the difference?

voracious | rapacious |

Rapacious is a synonym of voracious.



As adjectives the difference between voracious and rapacious

is that voracious is wanting or devouring great quantities of food while rapacious is voracious; avaricious.

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

    rapacious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Voracious; avaricious.
  • * 1787 , :
  • 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 .
  • Given to taking by force or plundering; aggressively greedy.
  • * 1910 , :
  • 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.
  • Subsisting off live prey.
  • * 1827 , :
  • 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 [...]

    Usage notes

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

    Synonyms

    * See also