Ragged retinues, hungry and rapacious (8)

I believe the answer is:

esurient

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'rapacious' is the definition.
(I know that rapacious can be written as esurient)

'ragged retinues' is the wordplay.
'ragged' indicates an anagram.
'retinues' anagrammed gives 'ESURIENT'.

'hungry and' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for esurient that I've seen before include "could eat a horse" , "Hungry, greedy" , "Greedy; ensure it (anag.)" , "Rapacious" , "Hungry; retinues (anag.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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