rapacious

adj

Etymology: Perhaps from rapacity + -ous, in any case ultimately from Latin rapāx (“grasping, greedy”).

1. Voracious; avaricious.

   “To presume a want of motives for such contests [of power between states] as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious.”

   “Relations between the Waveney Valley Railway and the E.C.R. [Eastern Counties Railway] soon became strained, because of the rapacious attitude adopted by the latter, and to the mismanagement which it displayed in working the smaller company's line.”

2. Given to taking by force or plundering; aggressively greedy.

   “A Prince […] sooner becomes hated by being rapacious and by interfering with the property and with the women of his subjects, than in any other way.”

3. Subsisting off live prey.

   “Even the rapacious birds appeared to comprehend the nature of the ceremony, for […] they once more began to make their airy circuits above the place[…]”