greed

(grēd)

An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth: "Many ... attach to competition the stigma of selfish greed" (Henry Fawcett).

[Back-formation from greedy.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

greed

(ɡriːd)

1. excessive consumption of or desire for food; gluttony

2. excessive desire, as for wealth or power

[C17: back formation from greedy]

ˈgreedless adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

greed

(grid)

n.

excessive or rapacious desire, esp. for wealth or possessions; avarice; covetousness.

[1600–10; back formation from greedy]

greed′less, adj.

greed′some, adj.

Greed

See Also: EATING AND DRINKING, ENVY

(My) avarice cooled like lust in the chill grave —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Avarice is like a graveyard; it takes all that it can get and gives nothing back —Josh Billings
Avaricious … like a pig which seeks its food in the mud, without caring where it comes from —Jean B. M. Vianney
The avaricious man is like the barren sandy ground of the desert which sucks in all the rain and dew with greediness, but yields no fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others —Zeno
Covetous persons are like sponges which greedily drink in water, but return very little until they are squeezed —G. S. Bowles
Greedy as a colt first loosed to pasture in the spring —Ben Ames Williams
Greedy as a vulture —Tobias Smollett
He [Donald Trump] has an appetite [for property] like a Rocky Mountain vulture —Alan Greenberg, Wall Street Journal, April 1, 1987
Kings, like hyenas, will always fall upon dead carcasses, although their bellies are full, and although they are conscious that in the end they will tear one another to pieces over them —Walter Savage Landor
(Love surfeits not) lust like a glutton dies —William Shakespeare
Rapacious as a crocodile —Anon
Rapacious as a warlord —Sharon Sheehe Stark
Sucked him dry like a raw egg —Bertold Brecht
They’re [the doctors] milking you like a cow —Molière

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	greed - excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves desire - an inclination to want things; "a man of many desires" avariciousness, cupidity, avarice, covetousness - extreme greed for material wealth possessiveness - excessive desire to possess or dominate acquisitiveness - strong desire to acquire and possess
	2.	greed - reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins) avarice, avaritia, rapacity, covetousness deadly sin, mortal sin - an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace; "theologians list seven mortal sins"

greed

greediness

noun

1. gluttony, voracity, insatiableness, ravenousness He ate too much out of sheer greed.

2. avarice, longing, desire, hunger, craving, eagerness, selfishness, acquisitiveness, rapacity, cupidity, covetousness, insatiableness an insatiable greed for power
avarice generosity, altruism, benevolence, self-restraint, unselfishness, munificence, largesse or largess

Quotations
"There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed" [Frank Buchman Remaking the World]

Proverbs
"The more you get, the more you want"
"The pitcher will go to the well once too often"

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

greed

noun

Excessive desire for more than one needs or deserves:

acquisitiveness, avarice, avariciousness, avidity, covetousness, cupidity, graspingness.

Informal: grabbiness.

Translations

جَشَع

chamtivostlačnostnenasytnost

grådighed

Gier Habgier Geiz

codicia gula avaricia

avidité

græîgi

avidità cupidigia

탐욕

mantkārībarijība

chciwość

ganância

жадность алчность

lakomnostpožrešnost

açgözlülük

贪婪

greed

[griːd] N → avaricia f, codicia f; (for food) → gula f, glotonería f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

greed

[ˈgriːd] n

(for money, power) → avidité f
greed for sth (= desire) → avidité de qch

(for food) → gourmandise f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

greed

n → Gier f (→ for nach +dat); (for material wealth also) → Habsucht f, → Habgier f; (= gluttony) → Gefräßigkeit f; greed for money/power → Geld-/Machtgier f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

greed

[griːd] n greed (for) (for money, power) → avidità (di), desiderio smodato (di); (for food) (also greediness) → golosità (per), ingordigia (di)

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

greed

(griːd) noun

a (too) great desire for food, money etc. Eating five cakes is just sheer greed.

ˈgreedy adjective

ˈgreedily adverb

ˈgreediness noun

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"If I do not conceal myself, he may be reminded to write something disagreeable about my lack of a crest or my appetite for scrap- iron; and although he is inexpressibly brilliant when he devotes himself to censure of folly and greed, his dulness is matchless when he transcends the limits of legitimate comment."

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The small grey eyes blinked, the lips moved, with greed; greed was the ruling passion; and though there was some good nature, some genuine kindliness, a true human touch, in the old toper, his greed was now so set afire by hope, that all other traits of character lay dormant.

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At this news I became almost beside myself with joy and greed, and I flung my arms round the neck of the dervish, exclaiming: "Good dervish, I see plainly that the riches of this world are nothing to you, therefore of what use is the knowledge of this treasure to you?

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Upon getting back to the car, he found it burdened with the quartz-blocks that Joe's greed had heaped in it.

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To be happy in gazing: with dead will, free from the grip and greed of selfishness--cold and ashy-grey all over, but with intoxicated moon-eyes!

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How few, in this cold age of greed, Do good, except on selfish grounds!

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A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer.

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In his truthful simple soul, not even the growing greed and worship of gold could beget any vice directly injurious to others.

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He hated the shams and the hypocrisies of it and with the clear vision of an unspoiled mind he had penetrated to the rotten core of the heart of the thing--the cowardly greed for peace and ease and the safe-guarding of property rights.

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I felt so good, that somehow, somewhere, in me arose an insatiable greed to feel better.

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In the interview at the Bank, Raffles had made it evident that his eagerness to torment was almost as strong in him as any other greed. He had frankly said that he had turned out of the way to come to Middlemarch, just to look about him and see whether the neighborhood would suit him to live in.

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After that his greed for this axe entered into Umslopogaas more and more, till at length he scarcely could sleep for thinking of it, and to Galazi he spoke of little else, wearying him much with his talk, for Galazi loved silence.

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