Definitions

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

  • adjective Hungry; greedy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Inclined to eat; hungry.
  • noun One who is hungry or greedy.

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

  • adjective rare Inclined to eat; hungry; voracious.
  • noun rare One who is hungry or greedy.

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

  • adjective Very hungry or greedy; ravenous.
  • adjective avid
  • noun One who is hungry or greedy.

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

  • adjective extremely hungry
  • adjective devouring or craving food in great quantities
  • adjective (often followed by `for') ardently or excessively desirous

Etymologies

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

[Latin ēsuriēns, ēsurient-, present participle of ēsurīre, desiderative of edere, to eat; see ed- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin esurire ("hungry, desiderative verb"), from edō ("to eat"). Etymological twin to edacious ("voracious, ravenous").

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Examples

  • Antonia D. said, "Is it not amazing that the moment I have read the word esurient a trace of something I knew pressed me to bring it back to life again (that is, to ..."

    Visual Thesaurus : Online Edition 2009

  • Obama's dignified elevation of our national discourse through honesty, depth, and nuance was greeted by ratings-esurient tabloid news, race-baiting commentary, and rancorous replay of Wright -- ad nauseam.

    Shaun Jacob Halper: Beyond Jeremiah: A New Kind of Media for Obama's New Kind of Politics 2008

  • It had been a relief for Ted after Connie's death, not to mention after the esurient pursuing by other women to which he'd been exposed, to find himself in the company of a woman who wanted to build a structure first before taking up residence within it.

    A Traitor to Memory George, Elizabeth 2001

  • Eight credits per week went to the company, in advance, for room and board; the rest he spent over the fat man's bar or gambled away at the fat man's crooked games-for Bominger, although engaged in vaster commerce far, nevertheless allowed no scruple to interfere with his esurient rapacity.

    Gray Lensman Smith, E. E. 1950

  • He drew tears from them with the pathos of his picture of the bereaved widow Mabey and her three starving, destitute children -- "orphaned to avenge the death of a pheasant" -- and the bereaved mother of that M. de Vilmorin, a student of Rennes, known here to many of them, who had met his death in a noble endeavour to champion the cause of an esurient member of their afflicted order.

    Scaramouche Rafael Sabatini 1912

  • "Oscar -- the amiable, irresponsible, esurient Oscar -- with no more sense of a picture than of the fit of a coat, has the courage of the opinions .... of others!"

    Oscar Wilde His Life and Confessions Harris, Frank 1910

  • He will be living on a great flat earth -- unless some officious person has tried to muddle his wits by telling him the earth is round; amidst trees, animals, men, houses, engines, utensils, that are all capable of being good or naughty, all fond of nice things and hostile to nasty ones, all thumpable and perishable, and all conceivably esurient.

    Mankind in the Making 1906

  • He will be living on a great flat earth — unless some officious person has tried to muddle his wits by telling him the earth is round; amidst trees, animals, men, houses, engines, utensils, that are all capable of being good or naughty, all fond of nice things and hostile to nasty ones, all thumpable and perishable, and all conceivably esurient.

    Mankind in the Making Herbert George 1903

  • If she do not gravitate too irresistibly towards that class of New-Era people (which includes whatsoever we have of prurient, esurient, morbid, flimsy, and in fact pitiable and unprofitable, and is at a sad discount among men of sense), she may get into good tracks of inquiry and connection here, and be very useful to herself and others.

    The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II Carlyle, Thomas 1883

  • It is to be hoped that a numerous and enterprising generation of writers will follow and surpass the present one; but it would be better if the stream were stayed, and the roll of our old, honest English books were closed, than that esurient book-makers should continue and debase a brave tradition, and lower, in their own eyes, a famous race.

    Essays in the Art of Writing Robert Louis Stevenson 1872

Comments

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  • extremely hungry

    July 17, 2007

  • Monty Python used this word in the 'Cheese Shop' sketch

    July 11, 2009

  • Wonderful, it’s Word of the Day and I used it just this Monday (two days ago).

    January 6, 2010

  • Really? That's iroquoisy.

    January 6, 2010

  • Indeed! :-D

    (Unfortunately, using such dainty words is only half as much fun when no one understands you . . .)

    January 6, 2010

  • from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution

    March 6, 2011

  • In addition, escurient means A. pertaining to appetite or the love of eating; gastronomic; B. a greedy person (Oxford English Dictionary).

    July 28, 2011

  • What art can be ever of pure intent
    For nudes, while noble, are prurient,
    And still lifes with fishes
    And fruit piled in dishes
    Appeal to the passions esurient?

    July 19, 2014