Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having or showing a strong or excessive desire to acquire money or possess things, especially wishing to possess more than what one needs or deserves.
  • adjective Having or showing a desire to eat or drink in large or excessive amounts.
  • adjective Extremely eager or desirous for an activity or pursuit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having an inordinate desire for food or drink; ravenous; voracious; very hungry.
  • Synonyms Insatiate, insatiable, rapacious, gluttonous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having a keen appetite for food or drink; ravenous; voracious; very hungry; -- followed by of.
  • adjective Having a keen desire for anything; vehemently desirous; eager to obtain; avaricious.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having greed; consumed by selfish desires.
  • adjective Prone to overeat.
  • adjective computing Tending to match as much text as possible.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (often followed by `for') ardently or excessively desirous
  • adjective wanting to eat or drink more than one can reasonably consume
  • adjective immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English gredi, from Old English grǣdig; see gher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gredy, from Old English grǣdiġ ("greedy, hungry, eager"), from Proto-Germanic *grēdagaz (“hungry”), from Proto-Germanic *grēdaz, *grēduz, *grēdô (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰAr(e)dʰ-, *gʰrēdʰ- (“to be hungry, long for”), equivalent to greed +‎ -y. Cognate with Old Saxon grādag ("gladly, willingly" compare Dutch graag), Old High German grātag ("greedy"), Danish grådig ("greedy") (from Old Norse gráðigr ("greedy"), gráði ("greed, hunger")), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (grēdags, "hungry"). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian ngordh ("to crave for, starve, die").

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