ravin

ravinnoun/ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/

• 1

  archaicliteraryProperty 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.
• 2

  archaicliteraryOf a (predatory) animal: seizing or devouring of food or prey; predation.

  • [T]he rage and furie of the barbarous nations brake out into a flaming fire: and like as vvild beaſts, vvont to live of ravine and prey vvhen keepers be ſlacke and negligent, […] vvithout regard of life, run upon vvhole heards and flockes of cattell: […]
  • 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.
• 3

  archaicliteraryGluttony, 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.
  • No appetite, that like the unchilded sea / […] hungers for such orts / As riot spares lean want, is yet so wide, / So vast of ravin or so blind in scope, / As can abide the chewed and perished meats / That relish died upon.
• 4

  archaicobsoleterareliteraryA 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, […]
• 5

  archaicobsoleteliteraryObtaining 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.
  • Ceſtreus, a kind of codfiſh, which neuer eateth any other fyſhe, wherof came this prouerbe, Ceſtreus ieiunae, the codde faſteth, ſpoken of good and iuſt men, whiche do noe raueyn nor taketh any other mens gooddes from theim.
• 6

  archaicobsoleteliteraryThat 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.
  • To mee, vvho vvith eternal Famin pine, / Alike is Hell, or Paradiſe, or Heaven, / There beſt, vvhere moſt vvith ravin I may meet; / VVhich here, though plenteous, all too little ſeems / To ſtuff this Mavv, this vaſt unhide-bound Corps.

ravinadj/ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/

• 1

  archaicobsoleteliteraryRavenous.

  • […] I am the cauſe / His death vvas ſo effected: Better 'tvvere / I met the rauine Lyon vvhen he roar'd / VVith ſharpe conſtraint of hunger: better 'tvvere, / That all the miſeries vvhich nature ovves / VVere mine at once.
  • A vessel in mid-ocean, her heaved prow / Clambering, the mast bent and the ravin wind / In her sail roaring.

ravinverb/ˈɹæv(ɪ)n/

• 1

  archaicliterarySometimes followed by away or from: to obtain or seize (something, especially property) by force or violence; to plunder.

  • [They] aſſaulted by night a certen aũciẽt [auncient] gentleman at home in his owne houſe, which had done thē [them] no diſpleaſure, and being a ſlepe in his bed at their cõming [comming], whan he had hardly eſcaped awaye half naked, rauening and diſtroying his goodes, they ſpoyled his wyfe and chyldren of all theyr apparell, and threatening them ofte with death, left thẽ [them] ſtarck naked, in ſo muche that one of the Nobilitie comming thither by chaunce, couered the woman with his owne garment.
  • Hee changed his vvages tenne times, ſought to eat him vp, & to rauin all hee could get from him.
• 2

  archaicliterarySometimes 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.
  • As God was able to ſaue the bodies of his ſeruantes, that they were not hurt in the fire, as he was able to keepe Ionas ſafe, in the whales bellie: ſo can he preſerue our bodies in the earth. Yea, much better, becauſe the fire naturally conſumeth, and the fiſhes bellie deſtroieth thoſe things which they rauine: but the earth naturally preſerueth that which is earthie.
• 3

  archaicliteraryTo 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.
  • But some characters in books are very real—Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.
• 4

  archaicliteraryFollowed 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.
  • [T]he Inhabitants of the Countrey, a barbarous and inhumane people (as generally Sea-borderers are) and inur'd to the ſpoil of VVracks, vvere not over haſty to acquaint the Duke's Officers vvith this, that they might not be diſturbed vvhilst buſie ravening after Booty.
• 5

  archaicliteraryTo eat greedily; also, followed by on or upon: of an animal: to prey on.

  • He is an horrible lurtcher ſe howe he rauyneth: […]
  • The couaitous deſyre of riche men is euer vnſaciable. It always raueneth and neuer is ſatisfied.
• 6

  archaicliterarySometimes 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.
  • [T]he Arms and Hands of the Bear, […] are his ſtrength and inſtrument of action to raven and prey vvith; […]
• 7

  archaicliterarySometimes 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, […]
  • They passed along towards the great hall-door, where the winds howled and ravened for their prey; […]
• 8

  archaicliteraryOriginally followed by with: to experience great hunger; to be ravenous.

  • For hovv […] ſhall I knovv thee to be a man, vvhen thou kickeſt like an aſſe, neygheſt like an Horſe after vvomen, raueſt in luſt like a Bull, raueneſt like a Beare, ſtingeſt like a Scorpion, rakeſt like a VVolfe, as ſuttle as a Foxe, as impudent as a Dogge; ſhall I ſay thou art man that haſt all the Symptomes of a beaſt?