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To wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of; -- used in a good sen Covet earnestly the best gifts. 1. Cor. xxii. 31. If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive. Shak.

That may be coveted; desirable.

One who covets.

Avarice. [Obs.] Spenser.

Acquisitiveness.

Very desirous; eager to obtain; -- used in a good sense. [Archaic] Covetous of wisdom and fair virtue. Shak. Covetous death bereaved us all, To aggrandize one funeral. Emerson.

In a covetous manner.

desire. [R.] When workmen strive to do better than well, They do confound their skill in covetousness. Shak.

To covet wrongfully. [Obs.]

To aim at; to aspire; to covet. [Obs.] This proud man affects imperial Dryden.

To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.] Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. Trumbull.

An excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity. To desire money for its own sake, and in order to hoard it up, is avarice. Beattie.

Covetous; niggardly. Bp. Berkeley. "Closefisted contractors." Hawthorne.

Covetous; penurious; stingy; closefisted. -- Close"hand`ed*ness, n.

nor the extreme caution or closeness of Tiberius. Bacon. An affectation of closeness and covetousness. Addison.

A leader or chief; a conspicuous person, esp. a rich covetous person. [Obs.] All cobbing country chuffs, which make their bellies and their bags their god, are called rich cobs. Nash.

Eager or inordinate desire, especially for wealth; greed of gain; avarice; covetousness. With the feelings of political distrust were mingled those of cupidity and envy, as the Spaniard saw the fairest provinces of the south still in the hands of the accursed race of Ishmael. Prescott.

penalty. [Obs.] See In one's danger, below. You stand within his danger, do you not Shak. Covetousness of gains hath brought [them] in dangerof this statute. Robynson (More's Utopia).

To long for; to wish for earnestly; to covet. Neither shall any man desire thy land. Ex. xxxiv. 24. Ye desire your child to live. Tennyson.

Feeling desire; eagerly wishing; solicitous; eager to obtain; covetous. Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him. John xvi. 19. Be not desirous of his dainties. Prov. xxiii. 3.