feeding frenzy

noun

plural feeding frenzies

1

: a frenzy of eating : a wildly aggressive attack of prey by an animal or group of animals

sharks in a feeding frenzy

Chemoreception seems to be highly developed in this snake and the smell of prey is sufficient to initiate a feeding frenzy.

—Douglas Cable et al.

2

: an intensely and often wildly competitive and aggressive human activity likened to frenzied feeding by predatory animals

They do not relish the journalistic feeding frenzy that will greet the senator's likely appearance on the witness stand.

—U.S. News & World Report

Most of the Westerners who attended the heavily hyped sale knew very little about Soviet art—or the Soviet Union for that matter—but were whipped into a feeding frenzy by the historic excitement of the moment.

—Harlow Robinson

Examples of feeding frenzy in a Sentence

sharks in a feeding frenzy

Recent Examples on the Web

Crozier, president of the North Central Phoenix Homeowners Association, fears passage of the bill would mean a feeding frenzy for developers. —The Arizona Republic, 6 Mar. 2024

Since 2010, Series Mania has grown in synch with the world’s fast-ramping premium cable TV, and then U.S. feeding frenzy for high-end drama, powerful new OTT entrants, and a content-creation reaction among incumbent TV operators and new SVOD players around the world. —John Hopewell, Variety, 15 Mar. 2024

This prompts the flea to go on a feeding frenzy, yielding multiple bites, and a significant opportunity to regurgitate the bacteria and spread plague with each bite. —Mark Kortepeter, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2024

Claudine Gay:How plagiarism claims at Harvard add fuel to GOP feeding frenzy on higher education College presidents don’t last long The college presidency is an all but impossible job. —USA TODAY, 4 Jan. 2024

This feeding frenzy is followed by an important period of fasting after mothers stop feeding their pups. —Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Jan. 2024

This feeding frenzy lasts two to four months during the late summer and early fall and is called hyperphagia. —Matthew Every, Field & Stream, 13 Dec. 2023

So long as even a single special interest gets its fill of taxpayer funding, everyone will continue to clamor for a part in the feeding frenzy. —James M. Hohman, National Review, 22 Dec. 2023

Amid the feeding frenzy, the project that Mr. Rinsch was pitching — a science-fiction series about artificial humans — became a hot property. —John Carreyrou, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1941, in the meaning defined at sense 1