envied

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of envy.

   Many in the office quietly envied her easy confidence with clients.

   The young champion was envied and resented by older players in equal measure.

   Note

   One spelling serves as simple past (she envied him) and as past participle after have or be (he has always envied her; she was envied by her neighbors). The y of envy turns to i before -ed, as in tried and carried. The verb takes its object directly, so you envy someone their luck, never envy at it today.

2. 2
   adjective

   Regarded with envy by others; being what other people wish they had or were.

   She landed one of the most envied jobs in the industry straight out of college.

   The envied corner office went, to everyone's surprise, to the newest partner.

   Similarcoveted, sought-after, desirable, enviable

   Note

   The participle settled into an adjective, mostly placed before a noun and graded with more and most: one of the most envied jobs, a much-envied post. Barbara Baynton's Human Toll (1907) sets it beside another adjective, "this envied, bedight girl", a child decked out and watched by those who have less. The envy belongs to the onlookers, never to the person described.

3. 3
   in-VYD/ɪnˈvaɪd/

   verbobsolete

   Past tense and past participle of envie. Obsolete.

   Note

   A separate, obsolete verb that only shares its spelling with the past of envy. Envie meant to vie, emulate or strive, so envied could once mean competed rather than begrudged. A modern reader will take the word as the past of envy; this one matters only when an old text speaks of rivalry rather than resentment.

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