| English Dictionary |
GREEDY (greedier, greediest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, greediest Dictionary entry overview: What does greedy mean?
• GREEDY (adjective)
The adjective GREEDY has 3 senses:
1. immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth
2. (often followed by 'for') ardently or excessively desirous
3. wanting to eat or drink more than one can reasonably consume
Familiarity information: GREEDY used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: greediest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth
Synonyms:
avaricious; covetous; grabby; grasping; greedy; prehensile
Context example:
prehensile employers stingy with raises for their employees
Similar:
acquisitive (eager to acquire and possess things especially material possessions or ideas)
Derivation:
greed (reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins))
greed (excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves)
greediness (an excessive desire for wealth (usually in large amounts))
Sense 2
Meaning:
(often followed by 'for') ardently or excessively desirous
Synonyms:
avid; devouring; esurient; greedy
Context example:
greedy for fame
Similar:
desirous; wishful (having or expressing desire for something)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Wanting to eat or drink more than one can reasonably consume
Context example:
don't be greedy with the cookies
Similar:
gluttonous (given to excess in consumption of especially food or drink)
Derivation:
greediness (an excessive desire for food)
Context examples
Coming aboard, as I passed through the cabin, I had noticed with greedy eyes a stout gentleman reading the Atlantic, which was open at my very essay.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Her greedy eye glanced rapidly over a page.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The little bit of food that we people get is immediately burnt up with heavy logs; we do not swallow so much as you coarse, greedy folk.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Being now between me and the light, I could see her curled lip, and her cruel eyes intently fixed on one place, with a greedy triumph.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He offered to draw her toward him again, but it was no more than a tentative muscular movement of the girdling arm, for he feared that he might be greedy.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Do you know that all these were squeezed out of your dying father by greedy priests, to pay for your upbringing in the cloisters?
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
While the remains of Jim Hall were discovered on a dozen mountain-sides by greedy claimants for blood- money.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The greedy rogue.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The whole group of us were covered for an instant by a canopy of leathery wings, and I had a momentary vision of a long, snake-like neck, a fierce, red, greedy eye, and a great snapping beak, filled, to my amazement, with little, gleaming teeth.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Jekyll (who was composite) now with the most sensitive apprehensions, now with a greedy gusto, projected and shared in the pleasures and adventures of Hyde; but Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain bandit remembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from pursuit.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Liberty has its roots in blood." (Albanian proverb)
"If you hear a person talking good about things that aren't in you, don't be sure that he wouldn't also say bad things about things that aren't in you." (Arabic proverb)
"Hasty speed is rarely good" (Dutch proverb)