covetous

From Middle English coveitous, from Anglo-Norman *cuveitus, from Medieval Latin as if *cupiditosus, from Latin cupiditas (“desire”); see covet.

• enPR: kŭv'ət-əs, IPA^(key): /ˈkʌvətəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

covetous (comparative more covetous, superlative most covetous)

1. Distastefully keen or desirous, especially for something belonging to someone else; avaricious.
   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, pages 125–126:

     Intimate as she was with Lady Anne, she would not but see how little the Misses Granard had of the ordinary pleasures of their age—but it never entered into her head to add to them—had one of their sweet faces been seen in her box at the opera, it might have attracted that attention she was feverishly covetous of engrossing.

• See also Thesaurus:greedy

• covet

• “covetous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “covetous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.