Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rapacious

Ra·pa′cious (-shŭs), a. [L. rapax, -acis, from rapere to seize and carry off, to snatch away. See Rapid.]

1. Given to plunder; disposed or accustomed to seize by violence; seizing by force. " The downfall of the rapacious and licentious Knights Templar." Motley.

2. Accustomed to seize food; subsisting on prey, or animals seized by violence; as, a tiger is a rapacious animal; a rapacious bird.

3. Avaricious; grasping; extortionate; also, greedy; ravenous; voracious; as, rapacious usurers; a rapacious appetite.

[Thy Lord] redeem thee quite from Death's rapacious claim Milton.

Syn. — Greedy; grasping; ravenous; voracious.

— Ra·pa′cious·ly, adv. — Ra·pa′cious·ness, n.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.