Definition: covetousness

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7

covetousness
     n 1: an envious eagerness to possess something
     2: extreme greed for material wealth [syn: avarice, avariciousness,
         cupidity]
     3: reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth
        (personified as one of the deadly sins) [syn: avarice, greed,
         rapacity, avaritia]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Covetousness \Cov"et*ous*ness\, n.
   1. Strong desire. [R.]

            When workmen strive to do better than well, They do
            confound their skill in covetousness. --Shak.

   2. A strong or inordinate desire of obtaining and possessing
      some supposed good; excessive desire for riches or money;
      -- in a bad sense.

            Covetousness, by a greed of getting more, deprivess
            itself of the true end of getting.    --Sprat.

   Syn: Avarice; cupidity; eagerness.

Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

Covetousness
   a strong desire after the possession of worldly things (Col.
   3:5; Eph. 5:5; Heb. 13:5; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10; Matt. 6:20). It
   assumes sometimes the more aggravated form of avarice, which is
   the mark of cold-hearted worldliness.