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🐺 Like a wolf 🍽️ Very hungry
wolfish

wolfish

7.2
Being very hungry and wanting to eat a lot
  • adjective
  • /ˈwʊlfɪʃ/
translation icon : voraz
  • The children displayed a wolfish desire for sweets, racing to the candy store as soon as they got their allowance.

Examples

  • Seeing the buffet spread made her wolfish instincts kick in, and she piled her plate high with food.

  • Their wolfish hunger for gold indicates their lack of humanity and spiritual emptiness; they represent those in society who are most in need of the priest-poet's redemption.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The longing is not secret, like the wolfish hunger that rises in her some nights as she lies on her bed in the overheated room, her nightgown thrown up above her breasts and her breathing so harsh that the sound of it must disturb the fitful sleep of her parents next door.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • After a long hike, he felt a wolfish appetite and devoured the entire pizza by himself.

Synonyms

voracious
vswolfish
19 7.5

Having a very large hunger for food or learning

is more narrowly about strong food-focused or greedy appetite
ravenous
vswolfish
18 6.0

Feeling very hungry and eager to eat

is closer to greedy appetite than to immediate physical starvation
gluttonous
vswolfish
3 7.2

Someone who always eats or drinks too much

is about strong appetite without the same moral judgement
rapacious
vswolfish
1 8.9

Very hungry and likely to eat large amounts of food

is about strong hunger without implying forceful seizing or pillage
hoggish
vswolfish
  • Offensive
1 9.1

A person who takes more than others, especially food, in a greedy, rude way

is about a strong appetite without the crude or insulting tone
ravening
vswolfish
9.9

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

focuses more on greedy desire than violent or hunting action
edacious
vswolfish
  • Formal
9.9

Eating large amounts of food

is the vivid everyday term rather than a formal label
esurient
vswolfish
  • Archaic
9.9

Very hungry and wanting a lot of food or money

is focused on food appetite rather than broader greed for wealth

Antonyms

to content
18 4.6

To make yourself or someone else satisfied with something

satiated
1 5.5

Having eaten enough that you do not want more food

How Hungry

ravenous
18 6.0
wolfish
7.2
hungry
∞ 1.0
peckish
  • UK
5 7.3

Surface Forms

wolfish positive
wolfisher comparative
wolfishest superlative

Morphology

wolfish = wolf (transparent) = wolf + ish

The sense 'ravenous' is a common, metaphorical extension of 'wolf-like' appetite and is readily inferable from 'wolf' + '-ish' by learners.

Etymology

Wolfish comes from wolf (the animal) + -ish meaning 'like', and because wolves eat fiercely a wolfish appetite is 'very hungry' or greedy, like someone ready to eat a lot.