Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Characterized by cannibalism; given to eating its own kind.

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

  • adjective Tending toward cannibalism.

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

  • adjective characteristic of cannibals or exhibiting cannibalism

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A violent and what most have described as a cannibalistic impulse seemed to overtake the bodies as they started to attack and devour the living, said a police chief in Miami.

    Down the Road Bowie Ibarra 2009

  • A violent and what most have described as a cannibalistic impulse seemed to overtake the bodies as they started to attack and devour the living, said a police chief in Miami.

    Down the Road Bowie Ibarra 2009

  • Crowded into tight quarters, lobsters become especially cannibalistic, which is why they must be banded in a lobster pound or store displays.

    Archive 2005-01-01 Jeff 2005

  • Crowded into tight quarters, lobsters become especially cannibalistic, which is why they must be banded in a lobster pound or store displays.

    Lobster info. Jeff 2005

  • A god held up as the august lord of the universe was the pitiful and abject hero of an obscene love affair; the taurobolium, performed to satisfy man's most exalted aspirations for spiritual purification and immortality, looked like a shower bath of blood and recalled cannibalistic orgies.

    The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism Franz Cumont

  • Civil War regiment transported to planet populated with civilizations seeded from Earth (medieval Russian, ancient Chinese and Japanese, Rome, Cartha, Norsemen, pirates); all serve as food for the "cannibalistic" Hordes of 12-foot, Klingon/Mongol-like horsemen.

    MIND MELD: Stories Hollywood Should Film 2008

  • But then I re-read it as I always do, for extra giggles, and I caught the mention of the word "cannibalistic," and I got the connection to that horrific news out of Texas. **shudder**

    Reality Bites 2009

  • I watched her life with a kind of cannibalistic eye, and she very generously allowed me to steal details like, for example, the scene in the classroom where the mother tears up the drawing of the "family" that includes the step-mother and the dead baby.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Katie Hafner 2011

  • 'cannibalistic' religion, I think he is a seeker of truth, and of God.

    The Daily Reckoning Australia 2008

  • Take a pretty solid crime thriller that follows a young FBI cadet who is tracking a serial killer with the help of a brilliant cannibalistic psychopath and put it in the hands of director Jonathan Demme, and what you get is a remarkable film.

    Top 10 Movies as Good or Better Than Books They’re Based On » Scene-Stealers 2009

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