rapacious

Adjective

rapacious (comparative more rapacious, superlative most rapacious)

1. (also, figuratively) Voracious; avaricious.
   • 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.1787, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 6: Concerning Dangers from Dissensions Between the States
   • Relations between the Waveney Valley Railway and the E.C.R. [Eastern Counties Railway] soon became strained, because of the rapacious attitude adopted by the latter, and to the mismanagement which it displayed in working the smaller company's line.1952 June, B. D. J. Walsh, “The Waveney Valley Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 365

   Synonyms:

   acquisitive, avaricious, cormorant, covetous, edacious, esurient, grasping, greedy, miserable, piggish

2. Given to taking by force or plundering; aggressively greedy.
   • 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.1910, Niccolò Machiavelli, “Chapter XIX”, in Ninian Hill Thomson, transl., The Prince
3. (usually a bird) Subsisting off live prey.
   • 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[…]1827, James Fenimore Cooper, “Chapter XIII”, in The Prairie

   Synonyms:

   predacious, predatory