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devouring

devouring

6.7
Wanting something very strongly
  • adjective
  • /dɪˈvaʊərɪŋ/
translation icon : devorador
  • His devouring curiosity led him to explore every corner of the world.

Examples

  • The child's devouring appetite for adventure often got him into trouble.

  • They go to life devouring and they are really very cold individuals.

  • And it's clear that before you know it, you know, we're going to be involved in a world devouring regress here.

  • I kind of understood the devouring famish T Rex part, but mostly I understood it.

  • Who's the predator? The devouring mother.

  • But what surrounds the correspondent is not delicate, it is a devouring irony.

  • There are only monstrous devouring fathers and petrified fatherless sons.

  • For this second Marx, capitalism is too unstable, too devouring, too "immanent" a thing to find its "outside" in a disalienated humanity; the problem then becomes how to rethink the critical Marxist promise of what is "to come" without recourse to a religion of some "essential community" or the "great narratives" through which this community would take consciousness of itself.

    Academic text (1998)
  • She had a devouring passion for knowledge, spending every free moment in the library.

Synonyms

greedy
vsdevouring
256 1.4

Wanting more food, money, or things than needed

is intense desire without implying selfish or unfair behavior
hungry
vsdevouring
164 1.8

Wanting something very much, often success or praise

is more intense and overwhelming than this milder desire
avid
vsdevouring
64 3.9

Very interested in something and excited to do it often

is more intense and overwhelming rather than simply keen
insatiable
vsdevouring
39 7.5

Always wanting more and never feeling satisfied

is intense desire but may be satisfiable rather than endless
voracious
vsdevouring
19 7.5

Having a very large hunger for food or learning

is intense eagerness without the strong eating image
ravenous
vsdevouring
18 6.0

Feeling very hungry and eager to eat

is intense desire across contexts rather than limited to food
rapacious
vsdevouring
1 8.9

Very hungry and likely to eat large amounts of food

is general intense desire not focused only on eating or predation
consuming
vsdevouring
5.4

So strong that it takes all your attention and energy

is an intense desire that does not take all attention
ravening
vsdevouring
9.9

Very hungry or greedy and acting in a violent way to take what others have

is intense desire but not necessarily violent or predatory in nature
esurient
vsdevouring
  • Archaic
9.9

Very hungry and wanting a lot of food or money

is intense desire that is general rather than mainly about food or wealth

Antonyms

46 4.4

Not interested or showing no strong feeling about something

24 6.8

Not showing much interest or energy

How Eager

insatiable
39 7.5
devouring
6.7
ardent
38 6.3
keen
85 2.3
eager
447 1.0
interested
1.0

Surface Forms

devouring positive

Morphology

devouring = devour (semi-transparent) = devour + ing

The adjective is formed regularly from the verb 'devour' with '-ing', but the sense shifts from literal 'eat up' to a metaphorical sense of intense, consuming desire.

Etymology

Devouring comes from Latin parts de- meaning 'completely' and vorare meaning 'to eat', the same root you see in devour and carnivore. So a devouring desire is like a hunger that 'eats' you up, very strong and hard to ignore.