raven

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   feed greedily

   The lions ravened the bodies.

2. 2
   noun

   Any of several, generally large, species of birds in the genus Corvus with lustrous black plumage; especially the common raven (Corvus corax).

   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. 3
   noun

   A person who brings bad news or makes pessimistic predictions.

   Ric[hard]. Novv y'ave ſpoke it halfe; 'tis ſinking I muſt treate of; / Your ſhips are all ſunke. / […] / M[istress] Foſt[er]. O thou fatall Raven; Let me pull thine eyes out for this / Sad croake.

4. 4
   adj

   Especially of hair: of the jet-black and often glossy colour of the plumage of a raven (etymology 1, noun sense 1).

   Near-synonyms: ebony, onyx.

From Middle English raven, reven (“raven (Corvus corax); carrion crow (Corvus corone); rook (Corvus frugilegus) (?); the constellation Corvus; gall nuts of the Aleppo oak (Quercus infectoria) used to make black ink”), from Old English hræfn (“raven”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrabn (“raven”), from Proto-Germanic *hrabnaz (“raven”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *ḱrep- (“to crackle; to rattle”) or *ḱer- (“to croak, crow”), probably ultimately onomatopoeic, referring to the bird’s call.

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