1.
[syn: avid, devouring(a), esurient, greedy]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Devour \De*vour"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Devoured; p. pr. & vb.
n. Devouring.] [F. d['e]vorer, fr. L. devorare; de + vorare
to eat greedily, swallow up. See Voracious.]
1. To eat up with greediness; to consume ravenously; to feast
upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon.
[1913 Webster]
Some evil beast hath devoured him. --Gen. xxxvii.
20.
[1913 Webster]
2. To seize upon and destroy or appropriate greedily,
selfishly, or wantonly; to consume; to swallow up; to use
up; to waste; to annihilate.
[1913 Webster]
Famine and pestilence shall devour him. --Ezek. vii.
15.
[1913 Webster]
I waste my life and do my days devour. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
3. To enjoy with avidity; to appropriate or take in eagerly
by the senses.
[1913 Webster]
Longing they look, and gaping at the sight,
Devour her o'er with vast delight. --Dryden.
Syn: To consume; waste; destroy; annihilate.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
devouring
adj 1: (often followed by `for') ardently or excessively
desirous; "avid for adventure"; "an avid ambition to
succeed"; "fierce devouring affection"; "the esurient
eyes of an avid curiosity"; "greedy for fame" [syn:
avid, devouring(a), esurient, greedy]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
85 Moby Thesaurus words for "devouring":
a hog for, acquisitive, all-devouring, appetite, avaricious, avid,
bottomless, cannibalism, carnivorism, carnivority, carnivorousness,
chewing, consumption, coveting, covetous, cropping, deglutition,
devourment, dieting, dining, eating, epulation, esurient, feasting,
feeding, gluttonous, gluttony, gobbling, grabby, grasping, grazing,
greedy, herbivorism, herbivority, herbivorousness, hoggish, hunger,
ingestion, insatiable, insatiate, licking, limitless, manducation,
mastication, mercenary, messing, miserly, money-hungry, money-mad,
munching, nibbling, nutrition, omnivorism, omnivorous,
omnivorousness, omophagy, overgreedy, pantophagy, pasture,
pasturing, pecking, piggish, quenchless, rapacious, ravening,
ravenous, regalement, relishing, rumination, savoring, slakeless,
sordid, swinish, tasting, unappeasable, unappeased, unquenchable,
unsated, unsatisfied, unslakeable, unslaked, vegetarianism, venal,
voracious, wolfing