different between anxious vs voracious

English

Alternative forms

• anctious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin anxius, from ang? (“to cause pain, choke”); akin to Ancient Greek ???? (ánkh?, “to choke”). See anger; angst.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?a?(k)??s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?æ?(k).??s/
• Hyphenation: anx?ious

Adjective

anxious (comparative more anxious or anxiouser, superlative most anxious or anxiousest)

1. Nervous and worried.
2. Having a feeling of anxiety or disquietude; extremely concerned, especially about something that will happen in the future or that is unknown.

   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
3. (of things) Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying.
4. Earnestly desirous.

Usage notes

• Anxious is followed by for, about, concerning, etc., before the object of solicitude.
• Some argue that this word should only be used in the sense of "worried" or "worrisome".

Synonyms

• angstful
• careful
• concerned
• disturbed
• restless
• solicitous
• uneasy
• unquiet
• watchful
• worrisome

Derived terms

• anxiously
• anxiousness

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• Anxiety on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• anxious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• anxious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Siouxan

English

Etymology

From Latin vor?x, from vor? (“I devour”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v????e?.??s/, /v???e?.??s/
• Rhymes: -e???s

Adjective

voracious (comparative more voracious, superlative most voracious)

1. Wanting or devouring great quantities of food.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, ch. 6:

     I never had so much as . . . one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages.

   • 1867, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. 45:

     The old man was up, betimes, next morning, and waited impatiently for the appearance of his new associate, who after a delay that seemed interminable, at length presented himself, and commenced a voracious assault on the breakfast.

   • 1910, Jack London, "The Human Drift":

     Retreating before stronger breeds, hungry and voracious, the Eskimo has drifted to the inhospitable polar regions.

2. Having a great appetite for anything.
   • 1922, Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, ch. 7:

     If he carried chiefly his appetite, a zeal for tiled bathrooms, a conviction that the Pullman car is the acme of human comfort, and a belief that it is proper to tip waiters, taxicab drivers, and barbers, but under no circumstances station agents and ushers, then his Odyssey will be replete with good meals and bad meals, bathing adventures, compartment-train escapades, and voracious demands for money.

   • 2005, Nathan Thornburgh, "The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies," Time, 29 Aug.:

     Methodical and voracious, these hackers wanted all the files they could find.

Synonyms

• (devouring great quantities of food): See Thesaurus:voracious
• (having a great appetite for anything): See Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

Related terms

• voracity

Translations