RAPACITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rapacity mean? 

• RAPACITY (noun)
  The noun RAPACITY has 2 senses:

1. extreme gluttony

2. reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

  Familiarity information: RAPACITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAPACITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extreme gluttony

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

edacity; esurience; rapaciousness; rapacity; voraciousness; voracity

Hypernyms ("rapacity" is a kind of...):

gluttony (habitual eating to excess)

Derivation:

rapacious (devouring or craving food in great quantities)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

avarice; avaritia; covetousness; greed; rapacity

Hypernyms ("rapacity" is a kind of...):

deadly sin; mortal sin (an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace)

Derivation:

rapacious (excessively greedy and grasping)

 Context examples 

Then, said Traddles, you must prepare to disgorge all that your rapacity has become possessed of, and to make restoration to the last farthing.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When the tea-things were removed, and the card-tables placed, the ladies all rose, and Elizabeth was then hoping to be soon joined by him, when all her views were overthrown by seeing him fall a victim to her mother's rapacity for whist players, and in a few moments after seated with the rest of the party.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)