Crossword clues for avaricious
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Avaricious \Av`a*ri"cious\ ([a^]v`[.a]*r[i^]sh"[u^]s), a. [Cf. F. avaricieux.] Actuated by avarice; greedy of gain; immoderately desirous of accumulating property.
Syn: Greedy; stingy; rapacious; griping; sordid; close.
Usage: Avaricious, Covetous, Parsimonious, Penurious, Miserly, Niggardly. The avaricious eagerly desire wealth with a view to hoard it. The covetous grasp after it at the expense of others, though not of necessity with a design to save, since a man may be covetous and yet a spendthrift. The penurious, parsimonious, and miserly save money by disgraceful self-denial, and the niggardly by meanness in their dealing with others. We speak of persons as covetous in getting, avaricious in retaining, parsimonious in expending, penurious or miserly in modes of living, niggardly in dispensing. [1913 Webster] -- Av`a*ri"cious*ly, adv. -- Av`a*ri"cious*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., from Old French avaricios "greedy, covetous" (Modern French avaricieux), from avarice (see avarice). An Old English word for it was feoh-georn. Related: Avariciously; avariciousness.
Wiktionary
a. actuate by avarice; extremely greedy for wealth or material gain; immoderately desirous of accumulate property.
WordNet
adj. immoderately desirous of acquiring e.g. wealth; "they are avaricious and will do anything for money"; "casting covetous eyes on his neighbor's fields"; "a grasping old miser"; "grasping commercialism"; "greedy for money and power"; "grew richer and greedier"; "prehensile employers stingy with raises for their employees" [syn: covetous, grabby, grasping, greedy, prehensile]
Usage examples of "avaricious".
And Coletta, in case you had not guessed, was a very avaricious woman.
But it will not sustain me through your marriage to Bianca Ingersoll, a woman so unworthy of you that you could as easily have thrown yourself away on Coletta or some other avaricious creature and not debased yourself so completely.
Jonathan Ainsley was aware that he had larceny in his heart, accepted that he was avaricious, greedy for the good things in life, hungry for power.
And within that avaricious little pack, none is so poisonously selfcentered and incorrigible as the small town businessman of rural America.
Thin arms and avaricious talons bit into cactus flesh without response, as the three slake-moths selected their victims, each grabbing hold of one of the entranced elders.
Most often, it dribbled in unpredictably in cash payments made in small bills that she counted out in front of me, making me feel guilty and avaricious for each and every dollar I was collecting.
I could only imagine the appeal that the Furlongs would have held for him, perhaps not only for the ambitious and avaricious reasons my friends and I had discussed just a few hours before while we sat on the dock, but as part of a far more human desire to be a member of a real family.
If Agatha Christie were writing today, would she replace Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Terrence and Tuppence with an overworked, admittedly avaricious investment banker?
If the time ever came when he wanted to die, who would be more likely to serve his purpose than the young, avaricious wife who loved another man?
They roasted her to a fare-you-well, and they called her a mean, avaricious, soulless woman, and still she survives.
Their avaricious parents took the children to Paris for exhibition, the exposures of which soon sacrificed their lives.
The cruel and avaricious desires of the monarchs against these thrifty and industrious people added fuel to the flames of the popular passion, and even a fanatic zeal arose among the Jews to perish as martyrs to their ancient religion.
I had spent three crowns to get back one, and could not be very avaricious.
To desire to live everlastingly as an identical individual, it has been said, is the ecstasy and culmination of avaricious conceitedness.
I have seen her more than once make game, with infinite wit, of the Abbe Gobelin, her confessor, who is a pedant and avaricious, I am persuaded that she knows much more about it than all these proud doctors in theology, and that she would be thoroughly capable of confessing her confessor.