Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The character of being rapacious; the exercise of a rapacious or predaceous disposition; the act or practice of seizing by force, as plunder or prey, or of obtaining by extortion or chicanery, as unjust gains: as, the rapacity of pirates, of usurers, or of wild beasts.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being rapacious; rapaciousness; ravenousness
- noun The act or practice of extorting or exacting by oppressive injustice; exorbitant greediness of gain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The quality of being
rapacious ;voracity .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)
- noun extreme gluttony
Etymologies
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Examples
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Now it unfortunately happened that Mr. Butterfield remembered to have heard the word rapacity used by a brother-magistrate, at the quarter-sessions, in a very different sense than the one to which it had just been applied by his lady.
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This isn't "rapacity" - which implies seizure of property.
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The whigs of this time were men of intellectual refinement; they had a genuine regard for good government, and a decent faith in reform; but when we chide the selfishness of machine politicians hunting office in modern democracy, let us console ourselves by recalling the rapacity of our oligarchies.
The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) 1809-1859
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To select the worst features of his Administration is no very easy task; but the calculating cruelty with which he abetted the extermination of the Rohillas -- his unjust and precipitate execution of Nuncomar, who had stood forth as his accuser, and, therefore, became his victim, -- his violent aggression upon the Raja of Benares, and that combination of public and private rapacity, which is exhibited in the details of his conduct to the royal family of
Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan — Volume 02
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It's not true, but I do believe most Americans blame this "rapacity" for the high gas prices.
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The erstwhile ruling group has infused our society with a culture of rapacity which is informed by the heartless concept of each one for himself or herself and the devil take the hindmost.
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"The erstwhile ruling group has infused our society with a culture of rapacity which is informed by the heartless concept of each one for himself or herself and the devil take the hindmost," the President said.
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The erstwhile ruling group has infused our society with a culture of rapacity which is informed by the heartless concept of each one for himself or herself and the devil take the hindmost.
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The erstwhile ruling group has infused our society with a culture of rapacity which is informed by the heartless concept of each one for himself or herself and the devil take the hindmost.
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The necessity of giving themselves up to sleep with relative security, without fear of the general rapacity which is the oceanic law, is a matter of concern to all of these marine beings, making them constructive and inventive.
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