ravin

Property obtained or seized by force or violence; booty, plunder, spoils.

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

Gluttony, greed, rapacity; also, the quality of being predatory; predatoriness.

A predatory animal; a predator.

Obtaining or seizing property by force or violence; pillage, plunder, robbery; (countable, chiefly in the plural) an instance of this.

Ravenous.

Better 'twere / I met the ravin lion when he roared / With sharp constraint of hunger;

Sometimes 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.

Sometimes 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.

[C]ertaine young men vvhom they call Giamoglans, vvith others that ſtood round about them, ſnatcht it [the food] haſtily vp as their fees, and like greedie Harpies rauened it dovvne in a moment.

To 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.

Followed 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.

[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.

A scandal to be seen, how his Croats and loose hordes went openly ravening about, bent on mere housebreaking, street-robbery and insolent violence.

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

The couaitous deſyre of riche men is euer vnſaciable. It always raueneth and neuer is ſatisfied.

For he [Daphnis] had doubled the number [of goats] he had received of Lamo, nor had the Wolf raven'd away so much as one, and they were all more twaddling fat then the very sheep.