ravening

US/ˈɹævənɪŋ/

ravening adjective: voracious and greedy.

Adjective

ravening (comparative more ravening, superlative most ravening)

Voracious and greedy.
- There is no shortage of ravening friends and relatives on the day one hits the lottery.
- They eate mans fleshe but seldome, bycause they meete not oftentymes with strangiers, except they goo foorth of theyr owne dominions with a mayne army of purpose to hunt for men, when theyr rauenynge appetite pricketh them forwarde.1555, Richard Eden (translator), The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India by Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, London: Edward Sutton, Decade 3, Book 5, p. 116
(archaic) Subject to the voracity of a predator.
- To be the strongers rauening pray the weaker did begin,
  And might went for oppressed right […]1567, “Hippolytus”, in John Studley, transl., edited by Thomas Newton, Seneca his tenne tragedies, translated into Englysh, published 1581, act 2
- Away with him into the open fields, To be a rauening pray to Crowes and Kites:c. 1590 (date written), G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595, →OCLC

ravening (plural ravenings)

(archaic, literary) Predation (by an animal); voracious eating or consumption.
- Some rather deuoure than eate their meate non other wyse than suche as be ledde in to prison. This rauenyng and deuourynge is appropred to theues.1532, Desiderius Erasmus, “Of maners at table”, in Robert Whittington, transl., A Lytell Booke of Good Maners for Chyldren, London
- Consider whether the lusty person were in foretyme geuen to moche drynkyng, eatyng and rauenyng, tomoch ease, to no exercise or bathinges in his helth, or no.1552, John Caius, A Boke, or Conseill against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse, London, page 34
Eagerness for plunder; rapacity; extortion.
- We must kyll diuelish pryde, furious angre, insatiable couetousnes, filthy lucre, stinking lechery, deadly hatred & malice, foxy wilines, woluish rauening & deuouring, and al other vnreasonable lustes and desires of the fleshe.1550, Thomas Cranmer, A Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Sauiour Christ, London, Book 5, Chapter 8, p. 109
- And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 11:39

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 7:15:
[…] then, when sunk on the down of usurped pomp, he shall have sufficiently indulged his meditations with what King he shall next glut his ravening maw […]1795–1797, Edmund Burke, “(please specify |letter=1 to 4)”, in [Letters on a Regicide Peace], London: [Rivington], page 11:
After an hour or so the veil lifted and discovered beneath it fifty horsemen, ravening lions to the sight, in steel armour dight.1885, Richard F. Burton, chapter XII, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume I, The Burton Club, page 114:

Present participle of the obsolete verb raven (“to prey”).

What does ravening mean?: Ravening means voracious and greedy.
How do you use ravening in a sentence?: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
What part of speech is ravening?: Ravening can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce ravening?: Ravening is pronounced /ˈɹævənɪŋ/ (US).

Adapted from Wiktionary: ravening (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “ravening.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ravening. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.