greedy Hear it!

greedy Definition

greedy (grēd′ē)

adjective greed′i·er, greed′i·est

  1. wanting or taking all that one can get, with no thought of others' needs; desiring more than one needs or deserves; avaricious; covetous
  2. having too strong a desire for food and drink; gluttonous; voracious
  3. intensely eager

Etymology: ME gredie < OE grædig < base of græd- (in grædum, eagerly) + -ig (see -y), akin to Goth grēdags, lit., hungry < IE base *ĝher-, to crave > Gr charis, grace, favor

greedy Related Forms
greed′i·ly adverb greed′i·ness noun
greedy Synonyms

greedy

modif.

  1. Avaricious

    avid, grasping, rapacious, selfish, miserly, parsimonious, close, close-fisted, tight, tight-fisted, niggardly, exploitative, grudging, sordid, mercenary, illiberal, stingy, covetous, penurious, acquisitive, pennypinching*.

    Antonyms generous*, munificent*, bountiful. *

  2. Gluttonous

    rapacious, swinish, voracious, devouring, hoggish, ravening, ravenous, omnivorous, carnivorous, insatiate, gorging, belly-worshiping, surfeiting, crapulous, intemperate, gormandizing, guzzling, gobbling, gulping, selfish, indulging one's appetites.

    Antonyms ascetic*, fasting, abstemious.

greedy implies an insatiable desire to possess or acquire something to an amount inordinately beyond what one needs or deserves and is the broadest of the terms compared here; avaricious stresses greed for money or riches and often connotes miserliness; grasping suggests an unscrupulous eagerness for gain that manifests itself in a seizing upon every opportunity to get what one desires; acquisitive stresses the exertion of effort in acquiring or accumulating wealth or material possessions to an excessive amount; covetous implies greed for something that another person rightfully possesses

greedy Usage Examples

Preposition: for

  • gain: Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
  • money: They must not be liars, heavy drinkers, or greedy for money.
  • power: The brahmin was then a king who was very greedy for power.

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • make: A grain of anger or a grain of suspicion produces strange acoustical effects, and makes the ear greedy to remark offense.
  • get: But I'd hate for the club to implode just because we got a bit too greedy.

Modifies a noun

  • bastard: It's the greedy bastards at the top who are killing the smaller cubs.
  • bugger: Mike Hick -- Monday, 26 September 2005, at 12:38 p.m. Re: Greedy Buggers!
  • algorithm: The broken schedule is then reconstructed by means of a greedy algorithm, using the weight distribution derived by the GA.
  • landlord: These moves ease the public sector borrowing burden in a way that cannot be attacked for selling off assets to greedy landlords.
  • pig: You don't have to be a ' greedy pig ' to fight for your dues.
  • capitalist: Who is forcing through GM crops because of pressure from greedy corporate capitalists who donât care about the environment, just money and control.

Modifying Another Word

  • too: However, do not be too greedy, I prefer to sell 10 items at £ 2 than 2 items at £ 10.
  • plain: And those of us not of broom handle stature are lazy, uneducated or just plain greedy.
  • so: She sings, I wish my life was a little less seedy / Why am I always so greedy?
  • very: It is about a very greedy council getting even more greedy.
  • just: A lot of debate around shoplifting revolves around whether people are just greedy, or are they genuinely needy.
  • not: He has some secret way; I know his blood: The grave's not greedier, nor hell's lord more proud.

Used with adjective complement

  • get: Now we're getting greedy, how about a 12th?
  • become: Heads of law schools will need to become more greedy!
  • feel: Or if you're feeling really greedy why not buy four games and get three games free.
greedy Quotes

Be not greedy to add money to money: but let it be as refuse in respect of our child.

—Bible (Apocrypha)

Alieni appetens, sui profusus. Greedy for the belongings of others, extravagant with his own.

—Sallust in full Gaius Sallustius Crispus

If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apttoteach; Not giventowine, nostriker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous.

—Bible (NewTestament)

I am not hungry; but thank goodness, I am greedy.

—Punch

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