What's the difference between covetous and envious?

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.

Envious


Definition:

  • (a.) Malignant; mischievous; spiteful.
  • (a.) 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.
  • (a.) Inspiring envy.
  • (a.) Excessively careful; cautious.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Updated at 12.23pm BST 12.04pm BST As Mariano Rajoy and François Hollande prepare to reveal their austerity budgets (Spain goes on Thursday and France on Friday), they might be forgiven for casting an envious eye towards Australia where government statisticians revealed that the country is A$325bn (£200bn) better off than they'd thought.
  • (2) He was perhaps casting an envious glance at his counterpart Dave Whelan's summer signings, particularly Holt, who nodded over early on from six yards.
  • (3) "If you tell the truth and say, 'I care, but I'm envious,' then you're OK.
  • (4) The top eight adjectives they chose were: envious, stiff, industrious, nature loving, quiet, honest, dishonest, xenophobic.
  • (5) Others feel an affinity to Scotland as they gaze enviously over the border wishing they had free prescriptions, lower university fees and a better system of financing care homes.
  • (6) The functions of these 'successful defence' manoeuvres are to obviate any feelings of an awareness of envy, although they may be overtly envious attacks within themselves, secondly they nullify any awareness of dependence, and also nullify awareness of need and illness, and thirdly they maintain the narcissistic organization by producing a successful identificate.
  • (7) I pull out a grape-flavoured one in bright mauve and eye Clapper’s Advanced Vaping System enviously.
  • (8) Except when we’re dismissed or denounced as envious and petty; as derivatives and dependents by nature.
  • (9) Besides the huge number of apps designed for the iPad – on which those running the Android team gaze enviously, if their efforts to create a similar "designed for tablet" section in Google Play are any guide – Apple is also making its play with those free apps for people who buy a new device.
  • (10) In 1977 the eminent Australian international relations theorist Hedley Bull summarised Australia’s core anxiety as that of a tiny population commanding a continent the size of Europe, rich in food, energy, and raw materials, and with a gross national product that easily surpasses that of its far more populous south-east Asian neighbours, a situation which it believed must surely be brought to an end at some point by an envious Asian “other”.
  • (11) The more I interviewed them about why they went into the profession, the more envious I became.
  • (12) But by the end of a pretty short conversation they're usually telling me how envious of me they are and how they wish they could spend more time with their kids.
  • (13) Guus Hiddink admitted he was left “envious” of the options available to the Paris Saint-Germain manager, Laurent Blanc, as Chelsea suffered the first defeat of his second spell in interim charge to trail 2-1 in their Champions League knockout tie .
  • (14) I think Malcolm would be incredibly envious that his alter ego, me, had got this gig and didn't have to spend his time dealing with idiot MPs in parliament."
  • (15) On stage, Lee is apparently an embittered, envious, self-lacerating man, caught in a ferocious double-bind: if he’s unsuccessful it’s because his audience are stupid shits who don’t get his jokes; and if he’s successful it’s because he’s a stupid shit churning out jokes that confirm his audience in their prejudices.
  • (16) Since this movie has no dimension at all, everyone is envious of the monkey.” It remains to be seen whether negative reviews for Fantastic Four damage the film’s box office this weekend.
  • (17) It is easy to see why players bounce off Klopp and indeed it was tempting to wonder if Chelsea’s despondent players were casting the occasional envious glance at the German, whose energetic and engrossing touchline demeanour offered a welcome shade of light next to José Mourinho ’s dark scowl.
  • (18) There is nothing shameful in admitting that I’m envious of native English speakers, or of people who are more charming than I am, or that I have negative thoughts about the fact that I feel I’m not enough – that is something that is part of me and it is good to put it out in the world,” she says.
  • (19) That’s the only way to make film.” That is why he is envious of musicians, he says.
  • (20) The author suggests that adolescent anger arises from an underlying wish to coerce objects into providing all-giving restitution for losses and narcissistic injuries, not necessarily from a wish to sadistically or enviously destroy them.