[syn: avarice, greed, covetousness, rapacity, avaritia]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Covetousness \Cov"et*ous*ness\, n.
1. Strong desire. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
When workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. A strong or inordinate desire of obtaining and possessing
some supposed good; excessive desire for riches or money;
-- in a bad sense.
[1913 Webster]
Covetousness, by a greed of getting more, deprivess
itself of the true end of getting. --Sprat.
Syn: Avarice; cupidity; eagerness.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
covetousness
n 1: an envious eagerness to possess something
2: extreme greed for material wealth [syn: avarice,
avariciousness, covetousness, cupidity]
3: reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth
(personified as one of the deadly sins) [syn: avarice,
greed, covetousness, rapacity, avaritia]
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
Covetousness
a strong desire after the possession of worldly things (Col.
3:5; Eph. 5:5; Heb. 13:5; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10; Matt. 6:20). It
assumes sometimes the more aggravated form of avarice, which is
the mark of cold-hearted worldliness.