DictionaryAI

envious

adjective
SayEN-vee-uhs/ˈɛnviəs//ˈɛnviːəs/

3 meanings of envious

Practice

  1. 1
    adjective
    Wanting what another person has and feeling unhappy because they have it.

    Like a hungry person watching someone else eat a big meal.

    He felt envious when his friend got a new bike.

    Don't be envious of your classmate just because she won the prize.

    Similarjealous, resentful, covetous, begrudging

    Note
  2. 2
    adjectiveobsolete
    Mean and spiteful, wanting to hurt or harm other people.
    Each envious brier his weary legs doth scratch.
    1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and AdonisHere, envious means spiteful, as if wanting to hurt.
    Note
  3. 3
    adjectiveobsolete
    So good or lucky that it makes other people wish it were theirs.
    He to him leapt, and that same envious gage / Of victors glory from him snatcht away.
    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneHere, envious means so good that others would long to have it.
    Note

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Origin

It came through Middle English and Old French from Latin "invidiōsus". It is linked to "envy".