What's the difference between covetous and desirous?

Covetous


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Very desirous; eager to obtain; -- used in a good sense.
  • (v. t.) Inordinately desirous; excessively eager to obtain and possess (esp. money); avaricious; -- in a bad sense.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) S&P – the only one of the three major agencies not to have stripped the UK of its coveted AAA status – said it had been surprised at the pick-up in activity during 2013 – a year that began with fears of a triple-dip recession.
  • (2) Concern for the future and belief in scientific progress provided the motive for the foundation of the Prize which, in our time, is one of the most coveted of honours.
  • (3) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Video: The many faces of Jürgen Klopp The deal represents a significant coup for FSG, which has convinced the coveted Klopp to abandon his sabbatical from the game after four months despite Liverpool having no Champions League football to offer.
  • (4) He might not be the hard-drinking rockstar of old but classically-trained pianist James Blake proved that cerebral compositions on a keyboard are no barrier to success after he was crowned winner of the coveted Barclaycard Mercury prize .
  • (5) It was a hat-trick of sex scandals involving Beckham, Eriksson and David Blunkett that landed the paper the coveted newspaper of the year award at last year's British Press Awards.
  • (6) Over the years the Oscars have been variously coveted and sneered at, have increasingly brought box-office value and personal prestige, become a media obsession, a gauge of industrial morale and a way of taking the national pulse.
  • (7) Their titles, like Jesse In Mexico and Hank In Pursuit, point to their primary use as emotional catalysts for the show rather than standalone pieces of music, though diehard fans will likely still covet it alongside their Breaking Bad cufflinks and Converse trainers .
  • (8) China says it has launched the world’s first quantum satellite, a project Beijing hopes will enable it to build a coveted “hack-proof” communications system with potentially significant military and commercial applications.
  • (9) Sometimes I wonder if, 20 years hence, we as a society will decide that it doesn't make sense to grant women coveted spots in advanced programmes in business, law, science or medicine.
  • (10) The coveted stars of modern football do not want to work like that.
  • (11) Its use of the internet to carry voice calls threatened to undermine the world’s biggest telecoms companies, from AT&T to Vodafone, and made it one of the most coveted up-starts in the tech world.
  • (12) The most coveted seats line the sidewalk, but the cavernous indoor space, lined with vintage beer posters and well-worn wooden alcoves, is an easy spot to settle in for the long haul.
  • (13) The Spanish champions are seeking to renegotiate with the much-coveted pair, whose deals include buy-out clauses set at around £43m.
  • (14) There are no jobs currently in existence that we covet."
  • (15) In the latest sign that McDonald’s is trying to consolidate its control of the coveted breakfast market, the fast food chain has applied to trademark a new word that could appeal to late morning risers everywhere: “McBrunch.” The application, which the maker of the Egg McMuffin filed on 23 July, signals at the very least an interest in expanding what has been one of the company’s fastest-growing and most profitable day segments.
  • (16) It is ubiquitous, yet coveted, pricey yet just about affordable.
  • (17) On the edge of Scholar’s Piece, the strip of farmland just behind King’s College, lies a granite stone which has become arguably Cambridge’s most coveted tourist attraction.
  • (18) In the movie, Peter Quill forms an uneasy alliance with a group of misfits who are on the run after stealing a coveted orb.
  • (19) When Yemeni journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye receives a coveted Human Rights Defenders award in Geneva , his role as a fearless chronicler of his country's US-led drone war will have come full circle.
  • (20) Arsenal know that the Catalan club already covet two of their key players, the captain, Cesc Fábregas, and the full-back Gaël Clichy, but Arsène Wenger, the manager, has come to view Arshavin's pronouncements in the Russian media with a degree of amusement.

Desirous


Definition:

  • (n.) Feeling desire; eagerly wishing; solicitous; eager to obtain; covetous.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I'm not sure Tolstoy ever worked out how he actually felt about love and desire, or how he should feel about it.
  • (2) Further improvement of results will be possible by early operation, a desirable objective.
  • (3) This has been accomplished by insertion of a desired gene into a pre-existing immortal cell or by immortalizing primary cells.
  • (4) The light intensity profile for any desired cell can be examined in "real time", even during acceleration of the rotor.
  • (5) Still, even as unknowable as this decision may be for him, as any decision is, really, he is far more qualified to understand his desires and goals that would inform that decision than anyone else is.
  • (6) It’s not just a matter of will or gumption or desire on my part.
  • (7) "The pattern of consumption is that among ebook readers there is a desire to pre-order, or get it quickly, so ebook sales are particularly high in the first few weeks," he said.
  • (8) Attention is drawn to the desirability of differentiating between supra- and sub-gingival calculus in the CPITN scoring system and to the excessive treatment requirements that arise from classifying everyone with calculus as requiring prophylaxis and scaling.
  • (9) Alternatively, the data presented herein strongly suggest that diets containing conventional quantities of fat, in which saturated fat is replaced by unsaturated fat and dietary cholesterol reduced, would result in the desired reductions to total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations without the adverse effects of increased postprandial glucose and insulin concentrations, increased fasting and postprandial total and very-low-density lipoprotein triglyceride concentrations, and decreased fasting high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations.
  • (10) Combining drugs may only occasionally be advisable to supplement a desired effect or to attenuate an unwanted one.
  • (11) Five hundred sixty grandmultiparous women were interviewed as to their contraceptive awareness, desirability and use in the three major hospitals in Benin City, Nigeria, between October 1, 1980 and September, 1981.
  • (12) It will not be so low as to put off candidates from outside the corporation but will be substantially less than Thompson's £671,000 annual remuneration – in line with Patten's desire to clamp down on BBC executive pay, which he said had become a "toxic issue".
  • (13) The concept of increasing bone mass and decreasing expanded soft-tissue mass has application within the judgment of the surgeon coupled with the patient's desires.
  • (14) This new derivative could represent a desirable complementation to rhbFGF for the development of more stable pharmaceutical formulations in wound healing applications.
  • (15) These concepts of facial harmony and surgical alterations have been difficult to teach in a residency program, especially regarding preoperative evaluation and a clear idea of the desired surgical results.
  • (16) Subsequent efforts focused on achieving high levels of insecticidal activity while minimizing costs of synthesis and retaining desirable levels of selective toxicity.
  • (17) The reasons are often financial, but can also be a desire for a change of pace or new experiences.
  • (18) Noninvasive procedures (such as Holter monitoring or recording of late potentials) are desirable for screening purposes, whereas it would be acceptable to use more aggressive invasive techniques in certain subsets of patients.
  • (19) KAP studies have demonstrated differences in the family size desires of men and women and in the determinants of attitudes toward birth control.
  • (20) An accurate description of the coronary anatomy is desired before anatomic correction of d-transposition of the great arteries.