ravening
- 1Extremely hungry and greedy, wanting to eat or grab everything in sight.
Like a hungry dog that gulps down its food and still wants more.
The ravening wolves circled the campfire all through the night.
A ravening crowd snatched every scrap of food off the table.
Similarravenous, voracious, rapacious, predatory, insatiable
Note
- 2A strong desire to rob or take things from others by force.
Like a greedy person who always wants more, even by stealing.
The pirates were known for their endless ravening along the coast.
His ravening for gold drove him to cheat everyone around him.
Similarrapacity, plunder, rapine, pillage, depredation
Note
- 3The act of a wild animal hunting and eating its prey.
Like a hungry cat catching and eating a mouse.
The ravening of the lions left little of the zebra behind.
[B]ut his fate that night was due to change, his days of ravening had come to an end.
1999, Seamus Heaney, BeowulfHere, ravening means hunting and hungrily eating prey.Note
Less common meaning
- 4Being seized and eaten by a hungry, hunting animal.
Like a fish caught and held in a bird's beak.
The ravening lamb bleated helplessly in the wolf's jaws.
Away with him into the open fields, To be a rauening pray to Crowes and Kites:
c. 1590, G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale.Here, rauening means being eaten up by hungry birds, so he becomes food for them.Note
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Origin
This is the -ing form of an old verb 'raven', which meant 'to prey'.