carnivorous

carnivorous (kɑːˈnɪvərəs)

—*adj*
1.	(esp of animals) feeding on flesh
2.	(of plants such as the pitcher plant and sundew) able to trap and digest insects and other small animals
3.	of or relating to the Carnivora
4.	informal aggressively ambitious or reactionary

[C17: from Latin carnivorus, from carō flesh + vorāre to consume]

car'nivorously

—*adv*

car'nivorousness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

carnivorous

1646, from L. carnivorus "flesh-eating," from caro "flesh" + vorare "to devour" (see voracious).

Example sentences

Carnivorous tigerfish had braved the poisoned streams and were feeding on flesh

that had fallen into the water.

Carnivorous bottom feeders, eating mostly fish and invertebrates.

He found crocodile tooth marks on one bone of a carnivorous dinosaur.

The plants, popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are

carnivorous.

Want carnivorous ad-free? Click here!

bear bowfin butcherbird butterwort cacomistle Carnivora

Matching Quote

"Cow and horse dung, as muck goes, are relatively agreeable. You can even become nostalgic about them. They smell of fermented grain, and on the far side of their smell there is hay and grass. Chicken shit is disagreeable and rasps the throat because of the quantity of ammonia. When you are cleaning out the henhouse, you're glad to go to the door and take a deep breath of fresh air. Pig and human excrement, however, smell the worst because men and pigs are carnivorous and their appetites are indiscriminate. The smell includes the sickeningly sweet one of decay. And on the far side of it is death."

-John Berger