cu·pid·i·ty

(kyo͞o-pĭd′ĭ-tē)

Excessive desire, especially for wealth; covetousness or avarice.

[Middle English cupidite, from Old French, from Latin cupiditās, from cupidus, desiring, from cupere, to desire.]

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.

cupidity

(kjuːˈpɪdɪtɪ)

strong desire, esp for possessions or money; greed

[C15: from Latin cupiditās, from cupidus eagerly desiring, from cupere to long for]

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

cu•pid•i•ty

(kyuˈpɪd ɪ ti)

n.

eager or excessive desire, esp. to possess something; greed; avarice.

[1400–50; late Middle English cupidite (< Middle French) < Latin cupiditās=cupid(us) eager, desirous (cup(ere) to desire + -idus -id⁴) + -itās -ity]

cu•pid′i•nous (-ˈpɪd n əs) adj.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

cupidity - extreme greed for material wealth

avariciousness, covetousness, avarice

greed - excessive desire to acquire or possess more (especially more material wealth) than one needs or deserves

cupidity

noun (Formal) avarice, greed, acquisitiveness, rapacity, covetousness, avidity, greediness, rapaciousness the well-known cupidity and greed of politicians

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

cupidity

noun

Excessive desire for more than one needs or deserves:

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

Informal: grabbiness.

Translations

cupidigia

cupidity

[kjuːˈpɪdɪtɪ] N (frm) → codicia 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

cupidity

[kjuːˈpɪdɪti] n (= avarice) → cupidité fCupid's arrow n (fig) (= love) → flèche f de CupidonCupid's bow n [lips] → bouche f en cœur

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cupidity

n (liter) → Begierde f (pej), → Gier f (pej)

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

cupidity

[kjuːˈpɪdɪtɪ] n → cupidigia

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Specious as this mode of reasoning might sound, it would not perhaps have taken so complete a hold of Boxtel, nor would he perhaps have yielded to the mere desire of vengeance which was gnawing at his heart, had not the demon of envy been joined with that of cupidity.

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And I could not imagine a human being so blinded by cupidity as to sell poison to such an atrocious creature.

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Where imposture, ignorance, and brutal cupidity, are the stock in trade of a small body of men, and one is described by these characteristics, all his fellows will recognise something belonging to themselves, and each will have a misgiving that the portrait is his own.

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But the cupidity of the Indian was soon gratified, and the different bodies again moved slowly onward.

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So intolerable indeed is it regarded by some, that no cupidity could persuade them to moor alongside of it.

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Marner's cottage had no thatch; and Dunstan's first act, after a train of thought made rapid by the stimulus of cupidity, was to go up to the bed; but while he did so, his eyes travelled eagerly over the floor, where the bricks, distinct in the fire-light, were discernible under the sprinkling of sand.

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"Aye, that I will," said the Sheriff, his cupidity casting his caution to the winds.

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Have there not been as many wars founded upon commercial motives since that has become the prevailing system of nations, as were before occasioned by the cupidity of territory or dominion?

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Here roving tribes of hunters, living in tents or lodges, and following the migrations of the game, may lead a life of savage independence, where there is nothing to tempt the cupidity of the white man.

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She knew that handkerchiefs similar to this frequently sold for twenty napoleons in the shops, but she did not know how much the cupidity of trade extracted from the silly and vain in the way of sheer contributions to avarice.

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His keen eye still played with facility in its deep-sunk orbit; and fat, which levels all the characteristic saliences of the human face, had not yet touched either his high cheek-bones, the sign of cunning and cupidity, or his pointed chin, the sign of acuteness and perseverance.

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Their very cupidity was to prove the means of their undoing, in the matter of the ransom at least.

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