early 14c., devouren, of beasts or persons, "to eat up entirely, eat ravenously, consume as food," from Old French devorer (12c.) "devour, swallow up, engulf," from Latin devorare "swallow down, accept eagerly," from de "down" (see de-) + vorare "to swallow" (from PIE root *gwora- "food, devouring"). Of persons or inanimate agents (fire, pestilence, etc.) "consume destructively or wastefully," late 14c. To "swallow up" figuratively (a book, etc.) from 1580s; to "take in ravenously" with the eyes, 1620s. Related: Devoured; devouring.
insect excrement, 1854, from German frasz, from root of fressen "to devour, to eat as a beast does" (see fret (v.)).
"blackhead; hard, blackish tubercule on the skin of the face," 1852, from Latin comedo "glutton," from comedere "to eat up" (see comestible). A name formerly given to worms that devour the body; transferred in medical use to secretions that resemble them.
1650s, from Latin gramineus "of grass, grassy," from gramen (genitive graminis) "grass, fodder," from PIE *gras-men-, suffixed form of root *gras- "to devour" (see gastric). The Latin adjective also is the source of the botanical order of Gramineae.
"voracious, savage," late 14c., present-participle adjective from an extinct verb ravine, raven "to prey, to plunder, devour greedily" (mid-14c.), from Old French raviner, ravinier "to seize, pillage" (see raven (v.)). It is etymologically related to ravenous, but not to raven (n.). Related: Raveningly.
"passage from the mouth of an animal to the stomach," c. 1300 (as a surname), from Old French golet "neck (of a bottle); gutter; bay, creek," diminutive of gole "throat, neck" (Modern French gueule), from Latin gula "throat," also "appetite," which is related to gluttire "to gulp down, devour," glutto "a glutton." De Vaan writes, "We seem to be dealing with an onomatopoeic formation of the form *gul- / *glu-." Compare Old English ceole "throat;" Old Church Slavonic glutu "gullet," Russian glot "draught, gulp;" Old Irish gelim "I devour."
