From Middle English raven, reven, from Old English hræfn, from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn, from Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer-.

• enPR: rāʹvən, IPA: /ˈɹeɪvən/

raven

1. (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]:

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

2. A jet-black colour.

    

• French: grand corbeau
• German: Rabe, Kolkrabe
• Italian: corvo imperiale
• Portuguese: corvo
• Russian: во́рон
• Spanish: cuervo

raven (not comparable)

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

   raven curls

   raven darkness

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

• French: noir corbeau
• German: rabenschwarz
• Italian: corvino

From Middle English ravene, ravine, from Old French raviner, itself from ravine, from Latin rapīna, itself from rapere.

• enPR: răvʹən, IPA: /ˈɹævən/

raven (uncountable)

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

• Portuguese: rapina, voraz

• German: Beute

raven (ravens, present participle ravening; simple past and past participle ravened)

1. (transitive, archaic) To obtain or seize by violence.
2. (transitive) To devour with great eagerness.
   • 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.

3. (transitive) To prey on with rapacity.

   The raven is both a scavenger, who ravens a dead animal almost like a vulture, and a bird of prey, who commonly ravens to catch a rodent.

4. (intransitive) To show rapacity; to be greedy (for something).
   • 1852, Elizabeth Gaskell, “The Old Nurse’s Story”, in The Old Nurse’s Story and Other Tales‎:

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

   • 1931, James B. Fagan, The Improper Duchess‎, 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

1. Surname.
2. A female given name for a girl with raven hair, used since the 1970s.
3. A male given name
4. A place name:
   1. A community in Red Deer County, possibly named after the Raven River.
   2. A number of places in USA:
      1. An unincorporated community in Prairie, Edgar County.
      2. An unincorporated community in Knott County, Kentucky.
      3. An unincorporated community in Brown County, Nebraska.
      4. CDP in Russell County, and.
   3. A village in Kardzhali, Bulgaria.
   4. A village in Gostivar, North Macedonia.