What's the difference between greedy and selfish?

Greedy


Definition:

  • (superl.) Having a keen appetite for food or drink; ravenous; voracious; very hungry; -- followed by of; as, a lion that is greedy of his prey.
  • (superl.) Having a keen desire for anything; vehemently desirous; eager to obtain; avaricious; as, greedy of gain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Most rentiers are not as easily identified as the greedy banker or manager.
  • (2) It's the greedy internet service providers, say MPs from an all-party committee, who want ISPs to apply automatic filters to prevent access to adult material.
  • (3) "The property owner has backtracked and displayed a greediness, realising that there is much to be gained and in so doing has begun to exploit the situation," he said.
  • (4) Jermain Defoe strikes in 89th minute for Sunderland to draw with Liverpool Read more Before the mass departure the Kop loudly sang, “Enough is enough, you greedy bastards, enough is enough” – which was roundly applauded by all four sides of Anfield, including the Sunderland supporters – before launching into ’You’ll Never Walk Alone’, usually reserved for the last few moments of a game.
  • (5) Why not use the report to announce that the bonus tax will continue until banks (and board rooms) control their offensively greedy pay?
  • (6) "We the taxpayer continue to finance the greedy executives while this government continues to cosy up to them in secret negotiations which have no effective outcome.
  • (7) The other airport boss sympathises: "Is it them being greedy, or airlines wanting every ounce of capacity when they can?
  • (8) And in our audiobook review, we examine appetite with Lionel Shriver's novel Big Brother, and Jay Rayner's exploration of the food industry, A Greedy Man in a Hungry World.
  • (9) We should all want our money managers to be greedy, with a strong caveat: the self-interest of bankers needs to be aligned with the health of the bank.
  • (10) The 1% are disproportionately made up not of people who are most able, but of those who are most greedy and least concerned about the rights, feelings and welfare of other people .
  • (11) But as civilisation gets greedy and society more militaristic, these wise women are edged to the sidelines in favour of a thundering, male warrior god.
  • (12) Amurao’s workers have invented their own word to describe anybody who is extravagantly greedy: “Imeldific”.
  • (13) We are either greedy capitalists or we offer bribes.
  • (14) But for the greedy and adventurous, each one is an absolute trip.
  • (15) It was based on a greedy society and unsustainable growth.
  • (16) Others will have a dual purpose and split between personal and business use, such as: • Mortgage interest (but not the capital repayment) or rent if you're a tenant • Running costs such as heat, light and water and TV licence if it's an essential tool • Repairs to your home or adding a desk and bookcase to an existing room • Council tax • Car or van – for a list of allowances for petrol and running costs go to the HMRC website "Don't be greedy by claiming 100% for business use or you will be liable for capital gains tax on that portion when you sell your home.
  • (17) Kleiner Perkins’ attorneys homed in on Pao’s perceived personal shortcomings, painting a cartoonish picture of a greedy and incompetent ex-employee out only for revenge and a big pay day.
  • (18) Bill Winters Ousted from the investment bank JP Morgan after a quarter of a century in 2009, Winters has blamed the banking crisis on "greedy bankers, investors and borrowers".
  • (19) One investor, Joan Woolard, told the bank's directors that anyone who needed more than £1m to live on was "just a greedy bastard".
  • (20) Leaving is a given when you're dealing with very greedy people; they are avaricious.

Selfish


Definition:

  • (a.) Caring supremely or unduly for one's self; regarding one's own comfort, advantage, etc., in disregard, or at the expense, of those of others.
  • (a.) Believing or teaching that the chief motives of human action are derived from love of self.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the effects of Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect on evoking upset in spouses through condescension (e.g., treating spouse as stupid or inferior), possessiveness (demanding too much time and attention), abuse (slapping spouse), unfaithfulness (having sex with others), inconsiderateness (leaving toilet seat up), moodiness (crying a lot), alcohol abuse (drinking too much alcohol), emotional constriction (hiding emotions to act tough), and self-centeredness (acting selfishly).
  • (2) They have been selfish, thinking of what they can achieve with gas.
  • (3) For a while yesterday, Hazel Blears's selfishly-timed resignation with her rude "rock the boat" brooch send shudders of revulsion through some in the party.
  • (4) A second level of concerted evolution occurs within the functional L1 sequences in a pattern that did not meet our expectations for selfish DNA.
  • (5) Not only did it make every grocery-store run a guilt trip; it made me feel selfish for caring more about birds in the present than about people in the future.
  • (6) Back in 1999 Chris Sidoti, then-head of the Australian Human Rights Commission, called the baby boomers “the most selfish generation in history”.
  • (7) It said Clinton's "cheap shots" had a hidden agenda to discredit China's engagement with Africa and "drive a wedge between China and Africa for the US selfish gain."
  • (8) We propose that REP sequences may be a prokaryotic equivalent of 'selfish DNA' and that gene conversion may play a role in the evolution and maintenance of REP sequences.
  • (9) Although angry when talking about the regime, his campaign grew from selfish motives.
  • (10) After The Arbor's success, said Barnard, the women who would become The Selfish Giant's executive producers, Lizzie Francke at the BFI and Katherine Butler from Film4, "were fantastic about saying, 'What do you want to do next?
  • (11) None of them is British, though there is great anticipation about The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnard's second feature, which premieres in the Directors' Fortnight .
  • (12) Further, it is selfish to suggest that Americans should feel some sort of responsibility for their fellow citizens.
  • (13) In an ideal world, such findings might be interpreted as smart women making smart choices, but instead it seems that this research is just adding fuel to the argument that women who don't have children, regardless of the reason, are not just selfish losers but dumb ones as well.
  • (14) Denial is absurdly selfish (and yet the best selfishness is yet to come).
  • (15) Jeremy Clarkson faced further censure on Saturday after describing people who killed themselves by jumping under trains as "selfish".
  • (16) A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations.
  • (17) In fact, Wilson's arguments are more fundamental and persuasive than Snow's; works on evolution, like Sociobiology and Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, have been absorbed into western cultural life as neatly as any neo-Darwinist could have predicted.
  • (18) Sometimes the athletes are so selfish they won't give up their own stuff to help others."
  • (19) Her newspaper profiles over the years are peppered with self-deprecating references to her sporting ruthlessness: her constant mentions of her selfishness and egotism; her win-at-all-costs, only-gold-medals-matter mentality; or the time she flung her helmet at her boyfriend in frustration after losing a race.
  • (20) This has been encouraged by the press' standard strike narrative: these selfish bastards are striking, this is bad, and it will affect you in this awful unacceptable way of maybe making you slightly late for work.