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envy
[ en-vee ]
noun
- a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc.
Synonyms: enviousness
- an object of such feeling:
Her intelligence made her the envy of her classmates.
- Obsolete. ill will.
verb (used with object)
- to regard (a person or thing) with envy:
She envies you for your success.
I envy your writing ability.
He envies her the position she has achieved in her profession.
Synonyms: resent
verb (used without object)
- Obsolete. to be affected with envy.
envy
/ ˈɛnvɪ /
noun
- a feeling of grudging or somewhat admiring discontent aroused by the possessions, achievements, or qualities of another
- the desire to have for oneself something possessed by another; covetousness
- an object of envy
verb
- to be envious of (a person or thing)
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Confusables Note
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Derived Forms
- ˈenvyingly, adverb
- ˈenvier, noun
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Other Words From
- en·vy·ing·ly adverb
- un·en·vied adjective
- un·en·vy·ing adjective
- un·en·vy·ing·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins
Origin of envy1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of envy1
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Idioms and Phrases
- green with envy, full of envy; covetous:
When my friends saw the enormous rock on my engagement ring, they were all green with envy.
More idioms and phrases containing envy
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Synonym Study
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Example Sentences
I envy my refusenik friends their steadfast commitments to stay in, and contentment in doing so.
Europeans seem to find them exotic, an odd case of culture-envy in reverse.
I don’t think that happened in the ‘90s and the ‘80s and I wonder if there’s a purity to that that I envy sometimes.
I had found the one and only thing in the entire universe for which Ben Bradlee might envy me: my age.
I envy Muslims their practice of regular and genuine prayer.
It is then we make him our friend, which sets us above the envy and contempt of wicked men.
Consult not with him that layeth a snare for thee, and hide thy counsel from them that envy thee.
She expatiated on his father's character; on the envy of his rivals; and dated his fall to their ambition alone.
She had a graceful figure, and the slender foot below her white piqué skirt was at once the envy and admiration of Aix-les-Bains.
Like his father, he had to bear all that Spanish envy and Spanish malignity could inflict.
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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