GREEDINESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does greediness mean? 

• GREEDINESS (noun)
  The noun GREEDINESS has 2 senses:

1. an excessive desire for food

2. an excessive desire for wealth (usually in large amounts)

  Familiarity information: GREEDINESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GREEDINESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An excessive desire for food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

greediness; hoggishness; piggishness

Hypernyms ("greediness" is a kind of...):

gluttony (habitual eating to excess)

Derivation:

greedy (wanting to eat or drink more than one can reasonably consume)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An excessive desire for wealth (usually in large amounts)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

greediness; rapaciousness; voraciousness

Context example:

the greediness of lawyers

Hypernyms ("greediness" is a kind of...):

selfishness (stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of others)

Derivation:

greedy (immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth)

 Context examples 

Now this king was very fond of money; and when he heard the miller’s boast his greediness was raised, and he sent for the girl to be brought before him.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He knew the injustice and greediness of the older dogs when meat or fish was thrown out to be eaten.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I did indeed observe that the Yahoos were the only animals in this country subject to any diseases; which, however, were much fewer than horses have among us, and contracted, not by any ill-treatment they meet with, but by the nastiness and greediness of that sordid brute.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I knew what all this meant, for the servants' dinner-bell was ringing at the very moment over our heads; and as I hate such encroaching people (the Jacksons are very encroaching, I have always said so: just the sort of people to get all they can), I said to the boy directly (a great lubberly fellow of ten years old, you know, who ought to be ashamed of himself), 'I'll take the boards to your father, Dick, so get you home again as fast as you can.' The boy looked very silly, and turned away without offering a word, for I believe I might speak pretty sharp; and I dare say it will cure him of coming marauding about the house for one while. I hate such greediness—so good as your father is to the family, employing the man all the year round!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Then the kid had to run home and fetch scissors, and a needle and thread, and the goat cut open the monster’s stomach, and hardly had she made one cut, than one little kid thrust its head out, and when she had cut farther, all six sprang out one after another, and were all still alive, and had suffered no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had swallowed them down whole.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)