raven

1. (transitive; sometimes intransitive with "from", "away", etc; archaic) To obtain or seize by violence; to plunder.Examples: "[…] ravening and destroying his goodes, they spoyled his wife and chyldren of all theyr apparell […]"; "Hee … sought to eat him up, and to raven all hee could get from him."; "Nor had the Wolf raven'd away so much as one."archaicintransitivesometimestransitive

2. (transitive, intransitive, sometimes with "up", "down", "in", etc) To devour with great eagerness; to feed (on something) hungrily or greedily.Examples: "And the hound Time, when all the Worlds and cities are swept away whereon he used to raven, having no more to devour, shall suddenly die."; "A Lion new returnde from rauening pray [sic] […]"; "... the Bowels, thence to diffuse itself throughout, mix with the vital spirit, and convert that kindly heat which should animate, into those wild irregular flames which ravine and consume. And this is done by that Pestilential spirit[…]"intransitivesometimestransitive

3. (transitive; intransitive with "on") To prey on with rapacity; to attack with violence in order to, or as if to, devour.Examples: "I refer to the danger of keeping a dog of this nature and disposition in a bedroom, where it can spring out ravening on anyone who enters."intransitivetransitive

4. (intransitive) To show rapacity; to be greedy (for something).Examples: "[…] because hogs are commonly rauening for their meat, more then other cattel, it is meet therefore to haue them ringed, or else they wil 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 […]"; "The Greek were-wolf is closely related to the vampire. The lycanthropist falls into a cataleptic trance, during which his soul leaves his body, enters that of a wolf and ravens for blood."intransitive