covet

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Then, in bantering tones: "Ah, but ye shouldna covet ----"

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). See Synonyms at envy.
  2. transitive verb To wish for longingly. See Synonyms at desire.
  3. intransitive verb To feel immoderate desire for that which is another's.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (5)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • After that, he looked more like the quarterback that NFL teams covet -- if he decides to pass up his senior season —  ESPN.com
  • He picked up my friend and to him a tale of woe, misery and discontent did unfold This club man had money, automobiles, social standing, possessions, and all the objects and material things envious persons covet--yet he was unhappy. —  Evening Round Up More Good Stuff Like Pep
  • I might earn millions, I fancy, if I set them steadily before my eyes and loved the means for the end's sake, easier than I could get what I covet--three or four hundred a year, plenty of leisure, and brain and habits unspoilt by money-making. —  Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878.
  • There is still another joy which every one of us must covet--the sense of entering into the intellectual riches of the world, its wonders of science and art and letters, with the feeling that we have a part in a great treasure, a treasure which, unlike gold and precious stones, men have never been able to gauge or to exhaust. —  A Girl's Student Days and After
  • But having been born without any effort of his own to all that most men covet--rank, wealth, and title--he showed a rare spirit of contentment, and did his best to make the world happier by enjoying himself As he was a very slow player, I began to think of a matter which lay nearer to my heart than the game, I mean the project of travelling to Venus. —  A Trip to Venus
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same contextWord Family

covet:   coveting ·  coveted ·  covets
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English coveiten, from Old French coveitier, from covitie, desire, from Latin cupiditās, from cupidus, desirous, from cupere, to desire.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also cuvet; from Middle English coveten, coveiten, coveyten, from Anglo-French cuveiter, Old French coveiter, covoiter, French convoiter (with inserted n) = Provencal cobeitar, cubitar (cf. Spanish codiciar = Portuguese cobiçar, cubiçar, covet, from Spanish codicia = Portuguese cobiça, cubiça, from Middle Latin cupiditia: see covetise) = Italian cubitare, covet, from Middle Latin as if *cupiditare, desire, covet, from cupidita(t-)s, desire (later ult. English cupidity), cupidus, desirous, from cupere, desire: see cupidous, Cupid.
 

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/ˈkəvɛt/
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