ravin UK /ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/US /ˈɹæv(ə)n/verb 10noun 6adjective 1forms 7phrases 1 verb10 •To eat greedily; also, followed by on or upon: of an animal: to prey on.He is an horrible lurtcher se howe he rauyneth: […] — 1530 •Followed by about, after, or for: to go after or seek for something, especially booty or spoils; to maraud, to plunder; also (generally), to move about wildly and cause damage; to rampage.Transferd by fortune to the Scottish meare, / To ransack that, as it had been rauin'd heere. — 1603 •(figurative) To take and exploit or make use of greedily. •Sometimes followed by after or for: to have a ravenous appetite or craving for food or prey.[B]ecause hogs are commonly rauening for their meat, more then other cattel, it is meet therefore to haue them ringed, or else they will doe much hurt in digging and turning vp corne fieldes, […] — 1587 •Originally followed by with: to experience great hunger; to be ravenous. •(figurative) Sometimes followed by after or for: to have a strong craving or desire for, or to do, something; to crave, to desire, to yearn.Isa[belle]. She has qualmes too every morning: ravins mightily for green-fruit; and svvoones at the sight of hot meat. / Non[such]. She's vvith Childe! I am undone: I am undone! — 1667 •Sometimes followed by about or on: to move about searching for food or prey ravenously.Beniamin shal rauine as a vvolfe: in the morning, he shal deuoure the praie, and at night he shal diuide the spoile. — 1560 •(no longer used) Sometimes followed by down, up, or (obsolete) in: to eat (something, such as food or prey) greedily; to devour, to wolf down.Her princes in the middes thereof are like vvolues, rauening yͤ pray [prey] to shed blood, and to shed blood, and to destroye soules for their ovvne couetous lucre. — 1560 •(figurative, no longer used) To absorb or take in (something, such as information) greedily; also, to approach or pounce on (someone) like prey.[S]he fenced them in their need / With iron-handed Duty's sternest creed, / 'Gainst Self's lean wolf that ravens word and deed. — 1875 •(no longer used) Sometimes followed by away or from: to obtain or seize (something, especially property) by force or violence; to plunder.Hee changed his vvages tenne times, sought to eat him vp, & to rauin all hee could get from him. — 1621 noun6 •(literary, no longer used) Of a (predatory) animal: seizing or devouring of food or prey; predation.The Kites and Rauens are not farre avvay, / Nor beasts of rauin that shall make a prey / Of a poore corpse, vvhich they from me shall haue, / And their foule bovvels shall be all thy graue. — 1630 •(literary, no longer used) Obtaining or seizing property by force or violence; pillage, plunder, robbery; (countable, chiefly in the plural) an instance of this.The. iiii. rule. […] If thou withdrawe thine handes, and forbere, / The rauens of anyething: remember than, / How his [Jesus's] innocent handes nailed were. — 1536 •(literary, no longer used) Property obtained or seized by force or violence; booty, plunder, spoils.Petra, through its rocky ramparts, was well suited, as Nineveh in the huge circuit of its massive walls was well built, to be the receptacle of ravin. — 1860 •(literary, no longer used) That which a predatory animal seizes for food; prey; also (hunting) an animal which is hunted; quarry.[H]is deepe deuouring iavves / VVyde gaped, like the griesly mouth of hell, / Through vvhich into his darke abysse all rauin fell. — 1590 •(figurative, no longer used) Gluttony, greed, rapacity; also, the quality of being predatory; predatoriness.[W]ith hot Ravine fir'd, ensanguined Man / Is novv become the Lyon of the Plain, / And vvorse. — 1728 •(no longer used, rare) A predatory animal; a predator.[…] Nurse Amaranta / In a remove from Mora to Corduba / VVas seiz'd on by a fierce and hungry Bear, / She vvas the Ravins prey, as heaven so vvould, […] — 1623 adjective1 •(no longer used) Ravenous.A vessel in mid-ocean, her heaved prow / Clambering, the mast bent and the ravin wind / In her sail roaring. — 1827 formsravined · ravining · ravineth · ravins · ravinest · more ravin · most ravin Phrases with ravin ravin downTo gobble ravenously, devour voraciously
