Greedy
adj ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Having greed; consumed by selfish desires.
"For with ſuch puiſſance and impetuous maine / Thoſe Champions broke on them, that forſt the fly, / Like ſcattered Sheepe, whenas the Shepherds ſwaine / A Lyon and a Tigre doth eſpye, / With greedy pace forth ruſhing from the foreſt nye."
- 2 Prone to overeat.
- 3 Tending to match as much text as possible.
"This regular expression performs a greedy match."
- 4 That tries to find the global optimum by finding the local optimum at each stage.
- 5 Greedily sought or pursued. archaic
"Suppoſe they be in number infinit, Yet being voyd of Martiall diſcipline, All running headlong after greedie ſpoiles: […] Their careleſſe ſwords ſhal lanch their fellows throats And make vs triumph in their ouerthrow."
- 1 wanting to eat or drink more than one can reasonably consume wordnet
- 2 immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth wordnet
- 3 (often followed by ‘for’) ardently or excessively desirous wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"A miser hoards money not because he is prudent but because he is greedy."
Etymology
From Middle English gredy, from Anglian Old English grēdiġ (“greedy, hungry, eager”) (cognate West Saxon form grǣdiġ), from Proto-Germanic *grēdagaz (“hungry”), from Proto-Germanic *grēdaz, *grēduz, *grēdô (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer-. Equivalent to greed + -y. Cognate with Old Saxon grādag (“greedy”), Dutch graag (“gladly, willingly”), Old High German grātag (“greedy”), Danish grådig (“greedy”), Norwegian Bokmål grådig (“greedy”) (from Old Norse gráðigr (“greedy”), gráði (“greed, hunger”)), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (grēdags, “hungry”). Sanskrit गृद्धि (gṛddhi, “greed”) is a false cognate.
Related phrases
More for "greedy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.