ENVIOUS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Envious

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/ˈɛnviəs/ Listen

adjective

Envious adj.

Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. (Obs.) "Each envious brier his weary legs doth scratch."

Feeling or exhibiting envy; actuated or directed by, or proceeding from, envy; said of a person, disposition, feeling, act, etc.; jealously pained by the excellence or good fortune of another; maliciously grudging; followed by of, at, and against; as, an envious man, disposition, attack; envious tongues. "My soul is envious of mine eye." "Neither be thou envious at the wicked."

Inspiring envy. (Obs. or Poetic) "He to him leapt, and that same envious gage Of victor's glory from him snatched away."

Excessively careful; cautious. (Obs.) "No men are so envious of their health."

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Etymology of 'Envious'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Envious" Quotes from Famous Books

... and fall of the Roman Empire; assigning no profound cause for these phenomena, nothing but diseased nerves, and all sorts of miserable motives, to the actors in them."[69] Carlyle's statement shows envious criticism as well as a prejudice in favor of his brother Scotchman. It was made in 1838, since when opinion has raised Gibbon to the top, for he actually lives while Hume is read perfunctorily, if at all. Moreover ...

— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes

... thus the dog was born; the gathered crowd Cheered their approval of this wise remark; A glad tail wagged its pride, and clear and loud Rang out the music of the earliest bark, While envious Nature sighed, "O parlous miss! I was a silly ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, May 13, 1914 • Various

... and place to act betray'd. Whom spies, or some faint virtue force to fly That scene of joy, which yet she dies to try. 'Till fancy bawds, and by mysterious charms Brings the dear object to her longing arms; Unguarded then she melts, acts fierce delight, And curses the returns of envious light. In such bless'd dreams Biblis enjoys a flame; Which waking she detests, and dares not name. Ixion gives a loose to his wild love, And in his airy visions cuckolds Jove. Honours and state before this phantom ...

— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Vol. IV • Theophilus Cibber

... Provinces would be ever grateful to their preserver for the result. They had no eyes for the picture which the Spanish party painted of an imaginary triumph of De Thermos and its effects. However the envious might cavil, now that the blow had been struck, the popular heart remained warm as ever, and refused to throw down the idol which had ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... the door," said Abel Jefferson, blowing a cloud of smoke from his mouth that might have made a small cannon envious. ...

— The Golden Dream - Adventures in the Far West • R.M. Ballantyne

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