Meaning & use
eats ravenously
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Meanings
phraseidiom
Eats in a very hungry, fast and eager way.
Grammar: The verb agrees with the subject, so use 'eat ravenously' with I, you, we or they.
Patterns
- someone eats ravenously
- eat ravenously at something
After the long hike, the children ate ravenously.
He eats ravenously whenever he skips lunch.
She ate ravenously at the buffet and then apologized.
phraseidiomfigurative
Reads or uses something with intense, greedy eagerness.
Grammar: Used figuratively with things you consume in large amounts, such as books or news.
Patterns
- eats ravenously through something
He eats ravenously through crime novels on holiday.
The public eats ravenously through every detail of the scandal.
Common combinations
- eat ravenously after something
- The team ate ravenously after the match.
- eat ravenously at the table
- Try not to eat ravenously at the table; you'll feel ill.
- eat ravenously like a wolf
- He eats ravenously, like a wolf who hasn't seen food for days.
- hungry enough to eat ravenously
- We were hungry enough to eat ravenously by six o'clock.
Synonyms and how they differ
- devour
- A single verb meaning to eat fast and completely; it is more formal and more forceful than 'eat ravenously'.
- wolf down
- Informal and stresses speed and lack of manners more than the hunger itself.
- gorge
- Suggests eating too much until you feel uncomfortably full, not just eating eagerly.
Opposites
Word family
- ravenously adverb
- In a very hungry, eager way.
- ravenous adjective
- Extremely hungry.
- ravenousness noun
- The state of being extremely hungry; rare.
Commonly confused: eats ravenously or ravenously vs hungrily?
eats ravenously vs ravenously vs hungrily
Hungrily just means feeling hunger; ravenously adds the idea of eating fast and with great eagerness.
Practice
Choose the sentence with the correct verb form.
Choose one answer.
With a third-person singular subject ('my brother'), the verb takes -s: 'eats ravenously'. 'Eat' needs a plural subject, 'eating' needs a form of be, and 'is eats' doubles the verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “eats ravenously”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.