Both Uses of
satiate
in
Moby Dick
- Slowly it floats more and more away, the water round it torn and splashed by the insatiate sharks, and the air above vexed with rapacious flights of screaming fowls, whose beaks are like so many insulting poniards in the whale.†
Chpt 67-69 *insatiate = not possible to satisfystandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in insatiate means not and reverses the meaning of satiate. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- Thou saw'st the murdered mate when tossed by pirates from the midnight deck; for hours he fell into the deeper midnight of the insatiate maw; and his murderers still sailed on unharmed—while swift lightnings shivered the neighboring ship that would have borne a righteous husband to outstretched, longing arms.†
Chpt 70-72
Definition:
to satisfy a hunger; or fill to satisfaction (typically said of hunger for food, but can be said of anything desired--such as of knowledge or sensual pleasure)