greed

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“
Unfortunately he is often given to strong drink, and, when his passions or his greed are aroused, can be exceedingly brutal.

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth: "Many . . . attach to competition the stigma of selfish greed” (Henry Fawcett).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • "We are ruined," he says, "the curse of our greed has been our undoing Don't sit there and moan," screams Margarethe. —  Maguire, Gregory - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - UC [.html].htm
  • The black look Bennie had given him for his greed was nothing compared to the glare Ward Gibbon was now getting from the kid at the plate My name is Yeshua ben Jose. —  F ;SF; - vol 087 issue 01 - July 1994
  • Their motives are pretty much the same as ours--greed, ambition, honour, courage, religious conviction, need for love and lust for power CD: Could you tell us about the reasons for the collapse of civilization that you used in Winter ? —  ChallengingDestiny22:April2006
  • Putting into practice British Nationalism's alternative to Capitalism and global corporate greed, which is workers 'control and ownership of their workplace - the path a BNP Government would follow for our industries and enterprises, here in Britain. —  The British National Party
  • What actually did the job was greed, which is, after all, what money attracts. —  The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

lust ·  selfishness ·  avarice ·  ambition ·  envy ·  vanity ·  arrogance ·  stupidity ·  malice ·  meanness ·  wickedness ·  hypocrisy
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 (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Back-formation from greedy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English grede (found only in second sense), from Anglo-Saxon grǣd (found only in adverbial dative plural grædum, with greediness) = Icelandic grādhr, hunger, greed, = Gothic (Moesogothic) grēdus, hunger. Cf. Russian golodu, hunger, Sanskrit gridhnu, etc., greedy, from √ gardh, be greedy. The adjective has a wider use: see greedy.
  2. Middle English greeden, greden, graden (preterit gradde), from Anglo-Saxon grǣdan, cry out (as a cock, goose, man, etc.); a different word from grǣtan, English greet, weep: see greet.
  3. from Middle English *grede (not found), from Anglo-Saxon grǣde, grass (Latin gramen), glossed also ulva, sedge; later grǣde, grēdde, grassy.
 

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