Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Characterized by voracity; devouring.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Eating; given to eating; greedy; voracious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Given to eating; voracious; devouring.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having an insatiable appetite; voracious, ravenous, piggish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective devouring or craving food in great quantities

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin edāx, edāc-, from edere, to eat; see ed- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin edācī ("gluttonous, greedy") + -ous (adjectival suffix), from edō ("to eat"). Etymological twin to esurient ("very hungry or greedy").

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Examples

  • They do not realize we are going to have a recession no matter what they do, and many times these panicked actions by Washington and its edacious appetite for more power only make things worse.

    Alan Schram: Washington Overreacts 2008

  • Is the writerly part of me so insensitive, so edacious, that I while I am struck with sorrow a part of me is looking for ways to express it in writing? posted by Dean at

    unimaginable Dean Francis Alfar 2005

  • I had a prof. several semesters ago who constantly spoke of the "edacious deglutition of pig".

    languagehat.com: ADMINICLE. 2004

  • PETER DEWAR, BURKE'S LANDED GENTRY: I think Princess Margaret will go down in the world history books as someone who is very glamorous, very edacious (ph), and indeed very hard working, especially in her earlier years, because she did undertake a great many Royal duties of one kind or another.

    CNN Transcript Feb 11, 2002 2002

  • The instant you enter the Thunderbird, you are overcome with an edacious distaste and a puncturing depression.

    Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas Robbins, Tom 1994

  • After this Hugo, not contented with the tragedy of the edacious murderer, gives us seven pages of his favourite rhetoric in _saccadé_ paragraphs on the general question.

    A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889

  • Occasionally the road must be set back, and once the lighthouse was moved back from the cliffs, eaten away by the edacious tooth of the sea.

    Among the Forces Henry White Warren 1871

  • I reminded my talented young parishioner and friend that Concord Bridge had long since yielded to the edacious tooth of Time.

    The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell 1855

  • For Time, all-edacious and all-feracious, does run on: and the Seven

    Past and Present Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII. Thomas Carlyle 1838

  • For Time, all-edacious and all - feracious, does run on: and the Seven Sleepers, awakening hungry after a hundred years, find that it is not their old nurses who can now give them suck!

    Past and Present Thomas Carlyle 1838

Comments

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  • Today is known for tables capacious

    And mumbled unfamiliar graces,

    A fest that is excellent

    For offerings esculent

    To please both the pious and edacious.

    November 26, 2015