a. Now pedantic or humorous. [f. L. fūrāci- (nom. fūrax), f. fūrārī to steal + -OUS.] Given to thieving, thievish.
1676. in Coles.
1702. C. Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana, II. App. (1852), 194. It was feared that there could be no stop given to his furacious exorbitancies any way but one; he could not be past stealing, unless he were past eating too.
1831. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 393. How like is man in one place, to man every-where; equally prosing, fraudulent, and furacious, when there is anything to be got by preaching to those beneath him!
1842. De Quincey, Pagan Oracles, Wks. VIII. 208, note. Greece was mendax, edax, furax (mendacious, edacious, furacious).
Hence Furaciousness, Furacity, the quality of being furacious; inclination or tendency to steal.
16236. Cockeram, Furacity.
1644. J. Bulwer, Chirologia, 134. In their way of Hieroglyphique when they figured furacity or theft by a light fingered left hand put forth as it were by stealth.
1737. Bailey, vol. II., Furaciousness.
1790. Umfreville, Hudsons Bay, 36. They [Indians] glory in every species of furacity and artifice.