| / English Dictionary |
COVET
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they covet ... he / she / it covets
Past simple: coveted
Past participle: coveted
-ing form: coveting
Sense 1
Meaning:
Wish, long, or crave for (something, especially the property of another person)
Example:
She covets her sister's house
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "covet" is one way to...):
begrudge; envy (be envious of; set one's heart on)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "covet"):
drool; salivate (be envious, desirous, eager for, or extremely happy about something)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sentence example:
They covet the money
Context examples:
I coveted a cake of bread.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Laurie knew this pillow well, and had cause to regard it with deep aversion, having been unmercifully pummeled with it in former days when romping was allowed, and now frequently debarred by it from the seat he most coveted next to Jo in the sofa corner.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Nothing ever rode the Gytrash: it was always alone; and goblins, to my notions, though they might tenant the dumb carcasses of beasts, could scarce covet shelter in the commonplace human form.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I arranged them myself, remembering that you didn't like what Hannah calls a 'sot-bookay', said Laurie, handing her a delicate nosegay, in a holder that she had long coveted as she daily passed it in Cardiglia's window.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I liked the hush, the gloom, the quaintness of these retreats in the day; but I by no means coveted a night's repose on one of those wide and heavy beds: shut in, some of them, with doors of oak; shaded, others, with wrought old English hangings crusted with thick work, portraying effigies of strange flowers, and stranger birds, and strangest human beings,—all which would have looked strange, indeed, by the pallid gleam of moonlight.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
"I, too, covet that, but not as a necklace. Ah, no! To me it is a rosary, and as such I should use it like a good catholic," said Esther, eyeing the handsome thing wistfully.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
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