| 释义 |
voracious, a.|vɒˈreɪʃəs|
[f. L. vorāci-, vorax, f. vorāre to devour + -ous. Cf. F. vorace, It. vorace, Sp. and Pg. voraz.]
1. Of animals (rarely of persons, or of the throat): Eating with greediness; devouring food in large quantities; gluttonous, ravenous. Also const. of.
1693Congreve in Dryden's Juvenal xi. (1697) 283 Well may they fear some miserable End,..Whose large voracious Throats have swallow'd All. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. 68 The King Carrion Crows..are very voracious, and will dispatch a carkass in a trice. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 231 The Spaniards are..cruel, inexorable, uncharitable, voracious. 1750G. Hughes Barbados 81 These [Cockroaches] are very troublesome, being voracious of most kinds of dressed victuals. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 88 All the Indians of South America..are in general excessively voracious. 1819Stephens in Shaw Gen. Zool. XI. ii. 616 All the species being extremely voracious. 1855Orr's Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat. 69 At the earliest introduction of fishes we find the voracious and highly organized tribe of sharks fully represented. 1861J. R. Greene Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent. 229 Yet are the Ctenophora very voracious, feeding on a number of floating marine animals.
transf.1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. ii. (1872) 45, I had seen him about a year before,..and had noted well the unlovely voracious look of him.
b. fig. Of persons: Excessively greedy or eager in some desire or pursuit. Also const. of.
1746Francis tr. Horace, Epist. i. ii. 34 Circe's Cups..Which with his Mates, voracious of their Woe, If he had blindly tasted [etc.]. 1812Examiner 7 Sept. 571/2 A..most voracious believer he is. 1851Carlyle Sterling i. iv, A voracious observer and participator in all things he likewise all along was. 1883Evangelical Mag. Sept. 419 Mr. Rowlands..was a voracious reader.
c. transf. Of things.
1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. to People 111 He will abhor the practice of sowing so voracious a vegetable after wheat. 1784Cowper Task iv. 450 Twitch'd from the perch, He gives the princely bird, with all his wives, To his voracious bag.
2. Characterized by voracity or greediness. Also fig.
1635J. Taylor (Water P.) Very Old Man in Hindley III. 12 All Creatures are Made for mans use, and may by Man be us'd, Not by voracious Gluttony abus'd. 1720Welton Suffer. Son of God II. xxvii. 709 This Miscreant thought of nothing else but how to glut his Voracious Appetite. 1800Med. Jrnl. III. 62 He had such a voracious appetite that he would take with indifference either medicine or food. 1875Chambers's Jrnl. 2 Jan. 45/2 [The snail's] appetite is as voracious as its means of indulging it are perfect.
b. fig. Of desires, interests, etc.: Insatiable.
1712Addison Spect. No. 452 ⁋5 They have a Relish for every thing that is News, let the matter of it be what it will; or, to speak more properly, they are Men of a Voracious Appetite, but no Taste. 1852H. Rogers Ess. (1874) I. vii. 342 He took revenge for his transient fit of scepticism by a subsequent most voracious dogmatism. a1854H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets x. (1857) II. 22 His appetite for argument was as voracious as his physical appetite. |