raven

From Middle English raven, reven, from Old English hræfn, from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn, from Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz (“raven”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to croak, crow”).

• enPR: rāʹvən, IPA^(key): /ˈɹeɪvən/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪvən

raven (countable and uncountable, plural ravens)

2. (countable) Any of several, generally large and lustrous black species of birds in the genus Corvus, especially the common raven (Corvus corax).
   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], signature D3, verso:

     Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.

3. A jet-black color.

   raven:  

   • 1859, Ferna Vale, Natalie; or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds:

     A lone man walks the shores of Nantucket; his noble form is slightly bent, and with the raven of his hair is blended the faintest tinge of gray, though he is evidently a man to whom the meridian of life is yet far in the distance […]

raven (not comparable)

1. Of the color of the raven; jet-black.

   raven curls; raven darkness

   She was a tall, sophisticated, raven-haired beauty.

From Middle English ravene, ravine, from Old French raviner (“rush, seize by force”), itself from ravine (“rapine”), from Latin rapīna (“plundering, loot”), itself from rapere (“seize, plunder, abduct”).

• ravin, ravine

• enPR: răvʹən, IPA^(key): /ˈɹævən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ævən

raven (uncountable)

1. Rapine; rapacity.
2. Prey; plunder; food obtained by violence.

raven (third-person singular simple present ravens, present participle ravening, simple past and past participle ravened)

1. (transitive; sometimes intransitive with "from", "away", etc; archaic) To obtain or seize by violence; to plunder.
   • 1560, John Daus, transl., Sleidane's Commentaries:

     […] ravening and destroying his goodes, they spoyled his wife and chyldren of all theyr apparell […]

   • 1621, Kaewill, David's Vow, page 237:

     Hee [...] sought to eat him up, and to raven all hee could get from him.

   • 1657, G. Thornley, Daphnis & Chloe, page 175:

     Nor had the Wolf raven'd away so much as one.

   • 1670, Cotton, Espernon, III, ix, 442:

     That they might not be disturbed whilst busie ravening after Booty.

   • 1856, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II, of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, page 66:

     ... his Croats and loose hordes went openly ravening about, bent on mere 'housebreaking, street-robbery and insolent violence.

2. (transitive, intransitive, sometimes with "up", "down", "in", etc) To devour with great eagerness; to feed (on something) hungrily or greedily.
   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 93:

     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.

   • 1615, Brathwait, Strappado, page 278:

     A Lion new returnde from rauening pray [sic] […]

   • 1671, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety [...] written by [...] Richard Allestree[?], page 247:

     ... 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 […]

   • 1818, Keats, Endym., III, 510:

     Clusters of grapes, the which they raven'd quick.

3. (transitive; intransitive with "on") To prey on with rapacity; to attack with violence in order to, or as if to, devour.
   • 1938, P.G. Woodhouse, The Code of the Woosters:

     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.

4. (intransitive) To show rapacity; to be greedy (for something).
   • 1587, Leonard Mascall, “The nature and qualities of hogges, and also the gouernement thereof”, in The First Booke of Cattell‎^[1], London:

     […] 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 […]

   • 1852, Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Old Nurse’s Story”, in The Old Nurse’s Story and Other Tales‎^[2]:

     They passed along towards the great hall-door, where the winds howled and ravened for their prey […]

   • 1865, Sabine Baring-Gould, chapter 8, in The Book of Were-Wolves‎^[3], London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 114:

     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.

   • 1931, James B. Fagan, The Improper Duchess‎^[4], London: Victor Gollancz, published 1932, act 3, page 237:

     On one side the great temple where you can gather the good harvest—on the other a dirty little scandal that you’ve nosed out to fling to paper scavengers who feed it to their readin’ millions ravening for pornographic dirt.

• ravener
• ravening
• ravenous, ravenously, ravenousness

• Corvus corax on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Verna

Borrowed from English rave. By surface analysis, rave +‎ -en.

• IPA^(key): /ˈreː.və(n)/

raven

1. to (hold a) rave, to party wildly

   Raven is leven. ― To rave is to live.

Original form of raaf which represents a rebracketing of this form and which existed alongside it since (late) Middle Dutch. The singular raven persisted in some dialects until at least the 18th century.

• IPA^(key): /ˈraːvə(n)/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːvən

raven m (plural ravens or ravenen, diminutive raventje n)

1. obsolete form of raaf

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ˈraːvə(n)/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːvən

raven

1. plural of raaf

• ervan, varen

From Rave +‎ -en, possibly after English (to) rave.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʁɛɪ̯vn̩/

raven (weak, third-person singular present ravt, past tense ravte, past participle geravt, auxiliary haben) (or as past participle: geraved)

1. (colloquial) to rave (to attend a rave)
   • 2018 March 15, Julian Weber, “Kepler 452b-Rave”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[5], →ISSN, page 26:

     Es wird geravt im Funkhaus Nalepastraße. „Kepler 452b“ klingt danach, Lichtjahre von der Realität entfernt zu sein. Motto des Techno-Performance-Festivals: „nonprofit und nomadisch“, Levitation pur.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Rave
• Raver

• “raven” in Duden online
• “raven” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

From Old Dutch ravan, from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn.

rāven m

1. raven

• rāvene
• rāve

• Dutch: raaf, (all obsolete) raef, raven, raaven, raeven
  • Afrikaans: raaf
  • → Sranan Tongo: rafru
• Limburgish: raof

• “raven”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “raven”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN

From Proto-Slavic *orvьnъ.

• IPA^(key): /ràːʋən/

rávən (comparative rávnejši, superlative nȁjrávnejši)

1. even, level

• ravȃn (archaic)

• rávnost

• “raven”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “raven”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references

raven

1. definite plural of rave