Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An excessively eager desire to possess something, especially wealth; avaricious desire; especially, coarse and brutal avarice.
- noun A greedy person.
- noun Synonyms Greediness, Greed; eagerness, avidity. Greediness is used either literally or figuratively, as greediness for food, greediness for favors, applause, knowledge; greed has now lost its literal sense, and is rarely used except for avarice and in such phrases as
greed of gain, greed of wealth, greed of gold. - To cry; cry out; call.
- noun A pondweed (Potamogeton in several species): usually in plural.
- noun plural Straw used to make manure in a farm-yard.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An eager desire or longing; greediness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A selfish or excessive
desire for more than is needed or deserved, especially of money, wealth, food, or other possessions.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves
- noun reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word greed.
Examples
-
Climate change in the same breath as greed and consumption, sounds like our man (as was) at the IPCC, Houghton, who believed that emissions reductions would save the planet from mankind's 'greed and indifference '.
On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008
-
Lord Myners attacks bankers 'greed and finds God minister appointed to clean up the City, is so disenchanted by bankers' greed and self-aggrandisement that he is planning to become a theology student.
-
(hey, even 20 percent would be great!) to the innovation platform put forward at Vijay Vaitheeswaran: "Need, speed, and greed for good as opposed to 'greed is good. '"
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Arianna Huffington 2010
-
(hey, even 20 percent would be great!) to the innovation platform put forward at Vijay Vaitheeswaran: "Need, speed, and greed for good as opposed to 'greed is good. '"
-
(hey, even 20 percent would be great!) to the innovation platform put forward at Vijay Vaitheeswaran: "Need, speed, and greed for good as opposed to 'greed is good. '"
-
(hey, even 20 percent would be great!) to the innovation platform put forward at Vijay Vaitheeswaran: "Need, speed, and greed for good as opposed to 'greed is good. '"
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Arianna Huffington 2010
-
The taxpayer will see to it that the corruption on Wall Street, the gambling mentality, and the plain greed is dealt with.
Vote on Wall Street reform debate may come Wednesday evening 2010
-
Last month, newspapers ran 2285 stories with the word "greed."
Peter Dreier: Occupy Wall Street: Changing the Topic Peter Dreier 2011
-
Number of articles with the word 'greed' in U.S. newspapers - October 2010 through October 2011
Peter Dreier: Occupy Wall Street: Changing the Topic Peter Dreier 2011
-
What fuels our greed is a neurotransmitter called dopamine.
Tony Schwartz: Dope, Dopes and Dopamine: The Problem With Money Tony Schwartz 2010
sonofgroucho commented on the word greed
I was going to put in a reference to the Greed Is Good speech from Wall Street, but it seems Gordon Gekko didn't actually say "Greed is Good."
December 24, 2006