When you eat something very hungrily, you can use the adverb ravenously to describe it. But when you drink something very fast in a similar way to quench your thirst, what adverb can you use to describe it?
Cambridge definition of ravenously:
in an extremely hungry way:
The children ate ravenously.
Example sentence:
He was so thirsty that he drank the water ______.
I don't think there's a perfect word for this, but here are some suggestions:
Latin vorac-, vorax, from vorare to devour; akin to Old English ācweorran to guzzle, Latin gurges whirlpool, Greek bibrōskein to devour
Of course "guzzle" specifically refers to drinking.
"drank greedily" has a number of hits on Google books - and is at least once paired with eating ravenously:
Inside he found the food and water his body craved; he ate ravenously and drank greedily.
Agree with "parchedly," but that's a pretty sorry word! You may be better off using a different verb than "to drink": gulp or guzzle, or, taking considerable poetic license with the meaning of the words, gasp or croak ("he gasped / croaked down a liter of water"). Another alternative is to use an adverb not specifically meaning "thirstily" but implying intensity or earnestness ("he desperately / furiously drank...").
The most common adverbs are greedily and eagerly, and it is also evident from various Google Ngram results1. Here are the OED definitions:
greedily: As one that is hungry or thirsty; with keen appetite; hungrily, ravenously, voraciously.
eagerly: In an eager manner; with impatient desire, promptitude, or alacrity.
Some other adverbs to consider are gulpingly and guzzlingly, and they are more closely associated with drinking. Here are the definitions of the verbs gulp and guzzle from Cambridge:
guzzle: to drink quickly, eagerly, and usually in large amounts
gulp: to eat or drink food or liquid quickly by swallowing it in large amounts
Coincidentally, I've found an example where both adverbs are used in the same sentence for emphasis:
Eddie picked up the former jamjar of murky water from my end of the table and drank it, gulpingly, guzzlingly.
Pompey: A Novel (by Jonathan Meades)
1 I've searched various relevant and probable structures with an adverb wildcard in Google Ngram Viewer, and greedily and eagerly came up as the most common adverbs for the context. Here are the results with screenshots:
Thirstily, the adverb for thirsty.
Parched is the best I have.
In tone it seems a bit more understated than ravenous, but I'm not aware of any others more severe.
Taking a note from John's answer: you'd probably want to use a combination of intense adjectives & adverbs. My suggestion would be something like "he desperately quaffed".
To describe that way of drinking you can also use the word "ravenously".
How about avidly (referring to the drinker's thirst) or copiously (referring to the volume drunk)?
Greedily (or insatiably) might be indeed be good answers. Often, "ravenously" describes how someone eats as much as from what cause the manner of their eating proceeds. Thus, to fill in the gap:
He drank the water ....
analogously to:
He ate the food ravenously.
you could use compulsively, wildly, with abandon, immoderately, urgently or obsessively.
If you want (something like) a Tom Swifty, you could use "distraughtly". :)
There is no direct counterpart that is in typical usage. Use any word that suggests desperation or urgency, if you must use an adverb. Describing the way the person drank visually would probably be far more descriptive, however. For example: "The traveler sank to her knees, grabbed the jug with both hands, drank the entire contents in one messy draft."
Actually, I would like to add that ravenous is not necessarily a term just for hunger; a ravenous thirst is a perfectly acceptable phrase. Ravenously also means greedily or in a predatory manner; it is literally derived from the word raven (like the bird). Thanks OED.
I concur with the many answers that choosing a different verb is better-suited in this case to convey the desired nuances. I particularly like "to quaff," which I picture as a very hasty (and messy) kind of drinking, imho fitting of the desired adverb "ravenously".
Depending on the mood of the drinker, I would go with "he quaffed recklessly/madly/aggressively" or "he quaffed heartily/vigorously"
Ps. This is more of a comment to @DanTheGameMan's answer, but alas, I don't have enough reputation for this yet.
Pps. As a non-native English speaker, I was introduced to the word by reading Terry Pratchett, where it appeared in the context of dwarfish drinking behaviour (if memory serves).
You could also get creative with watery words and make some adjectives up, if you're into that sort of thing:
Some of them are groan-worthy, but I like a couple.
The etymology of ravenous according to the OED: Originally: (of an animal) given to seizing other animals as prey; predatory; ferocious. Later: (of an animal or person; also of the appetite, hunger, etc.) voracious, gluttonous. Also fig. and in extended use.
A synonym would be 'voraciously'. So in order to answer this question one has to think of an animal which drinks voraciously. Could that be a camel, or a dog, let's say. And how does a dog drink? It 'laps' the water.
So the verb must surely be 'he lapped the liquid down him'. As for an adverb, it would have to be: 'He drank lappedly'
Perhaps "guzzled". Or a metaphor.
He drank like a particularly parched fish who'd just been on a camel ride with the hotel holiday resort and hadn't brought any change, where the only available water was for sale by grinning tour guides.
or
He wearily examined the (beverage, water?) to check it wasn't a mirage, and once certain, with a wave of relief guzzled it down barely taking the time to breathe. Occasionally he spluttered for air, like a surfacing whale, and then returned to desperately trying to take in his own body weight in liquid.
How about some derivative of drench? Since parched speaks of the absence of fluid, and ravenous more of the actual present consumption of food, I would think drenched (or drenchedly/drenchally if there exist such words) would be better...as it speaks more of the present consumption of and saturation with fluid.
drouthy (scot, thirsty or dry)
dehydrated
parched
I would be more inclined to suggest parched as a solution, though I would personally use drouthy.
Dehydrated serves the same purpose but I'd use it to narrate more specifically.
For more general terms that applies to both eating and drinking you could try gluttonously or hedonistically depending on the connotation.
Not an adjective, but to slake your thirst generally means you have been very thirsty and dehydrated
Quaffedwould be my choice. – Chloe Mar 28 '14 at 15:56