What's the difference between covetous and miserly?

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.

Miserly


Definition:

  • (a.) Like a miser; very covetous; sordid; niggardly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He told strikers at St Thomas’ hospital, London: “By taking action on such a miserable morning you are sending a strong message that decent men and women in the jewel of our civilisation are not prepared to be treated as second-class citizens any more.
  • (2) "It's always been done in a really miserable way in the past, but this is fresh and new.
  • (3) Supporting a Sunderland side who had last won a home Premier League game back in January, when Stoke City were narrowly defeated, is not a pursuit for the faint-hearted but this was turning into the equivalent of the sudden dawning of a gloriously hot sunny day amid a miserable, cold, wet summer.
  • (4) People like Hugo forgot how truly miserable Paris had been for ordinary Parisians.” Out of a job and persona non grata in Paris, Haussmann spent six months in Italy to lift his spirits.
  • (5) But my characters are either really strong, miserable or tortured."
  • (6) A full marching band moved through a sea of umbrellas, playing the Les Miserables song Do You Hear the People Sing.
  • (7) Similarly at world level, it considers the struggles and efforts by the miserable and oppressed nations for achievement of their legitimate rights and independence as their due rights, because people have the right to liberate their countries from colonialism and obtain their rights.
  • (8) My first marriage is the only thing I've ever failed at and I failed miserably."
  • (9) If after 10 years the Californian law is working well: that’s to say it is not being used against the weak and miserable as a cheaper alternative to proper palliative care, there will be no reason not to extend it here.
  • (10) Low point: "When a show I directed, Paul Simon's The Capeman, failed miserably."
  • (11) The smile, so noticeably absent during a miserable final season at his boyhood club, was back.
  • (12) His father died when Giulio was two, and the family survived on his mother's miserly widow's pension.
  • (13) Roberto Firmino and Adam Lallana established a comfortable advantage for the home side, only for Adam Johnson’s free-kick, and Simon Mignolet’s weak attempt to stop it, plus Defoe’s clinical late strike to extend Liverpool’s miserable run to five points out of 18 in 2016.
  • (14) This drubbing exposed not only the team's inadequacy on the day in the face of a rampant United side who sensed miserable resistance almost from the kick-off, but also Arsène Wenger's tepid commitment to the FA Cup, whatever his ready-made complaints of depleted resources before and after.
  • (15) "He truly had such a miserable time on the first day or two of the shoot.
  • (16) Fair pay, not benefits or subsidies to miserly employers, brought Labour into being – so why is the party in danger of letting this strong emblematic policy slip away?
  • (17) On the positive side, it will very soon overtake Les Miserables (£40.8m) to become the second-biggest 2013 release, behind only Despicable Me 2 (£47.4m).
  • (18) Smoldering resentment, chronic anger, self-centeredness, vindictiveness, and a constant feeling of being abused ultimately produce a miserable human being who, as well as being alienated from self, alienates those in the interpersonal sphere.
  • (19) As soon as you live in the place, it becomes grey and miserable – as do the people.
  • (20) The good thing about the above is the equal-opportunities nature of it: almost everyone is made to feel inadequate or miserable.