Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To feel strong or immoderate desire for (that which is another's).
- intransitive verb To wish for (something) longingly. synonym: desire.
- intransitive verb To covet that which is another's.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To desire or wish for with eagerness; desire earnestly to obtain or possess: in a good sense.
- To desire inordinately or without due regard to the rights of others; wish to gain possession of in an unlawful way; long for, as that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess.
- Synonyms and To long for, hanker after, aspire to.
- To lust after.
- To have or indulge inordinate desire.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of; -- used in a good sense.
- transitive verb To long for inordinately or unlawfully; to hanker after (something forbidden).
- intransitive verb To have or indulge inordinate desire.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
wish for with eagerness; todesire possession of, oftenenviously . - verb transitive To
long for inordinately or unlawfully; tohanker after (something forbidden). - verb intransitive To
yearn , have or indulge inordinate desire, notably for another's possession.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb wish, long, or crave for (something, especially the property of another person)
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 covet.
Examples
-
Such blight condemnations merely enable politically powerful interest groups to take property that they covet from the politically weak.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Is the Debate Over Eminent Domain “Empty and Incoherent”? 2010
-
OH YOU KNOW THAT ONE? jeneane garofalo uses the word covet like every day must look that up some day. later big kiss mitten prev - next
mitten Diary Entry mitten 2002
-
The job all sandwich men covet is distributing handbills, which is paid for at the same rate.
-
Prosperity, which men so much covet, is the very source of provoking oppression (Ec 4: 1) and "envy," so far is it from constituting the chief good.
-
But should alarm bells be ringing because huge advertising company Google, which has never seen user data it didn’t covet, is behind it?
-
Bottega Veneta tie-dye scarf in magenta bordeaux, £255 I've never seen anything by BV that I didn't covet, which is why I always include them in gift guides.
All I Want for Christmas... Tina Gaudoin 2011
-
To covet is to have lost our inner peace, our baseline satisfaction about who we are and what we have.
The Ten Commandments David Hazony 2010
-
To covet is to focus all our desire on something we do not have, perhaps cannot have.
The Ten Commandments David Hazony 2010
-
BENEDICT: Tiding is a principle that teaches business leaders to give up the one thing that many of us covet, which is money.
-
If you are looking round for something you can say in order to get the position you covet, that is another thing.
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864
esotericwench commented on the word covet
A word doesn't have to be long or fancy to be wonderful. Covet is a great word. It rolls off the tongue with wonderful ease and has an enticing and vaguely puerile sound to it.
August 7, 2008
yarb commented on the word covet
I agree with you 100%, EsotericWench!
August 7, 2008
Kristianto2010 commented on the word covet
You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. James 4:2.
December 15, 2010