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''covet'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260717141042-00-⌔

covet - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

covet (third-person singular simple present covets, present participle coveting, simple past and past participle coveted)

  • (transitive) To wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.
    • ✤ What Netflix really covets is closer to its current competencies: WBD’s “intellectual property”, or in plain English, franchises such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Friends, pictured, and The Sopranos.1
  • (transitive) To long for inordinately or unlawfully; to hanker after (something forbidden).
  • (intransitive) To yearn; to have or indulge an inordinate desire, especially for another’s possession.
    • ✤ No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.2

Etymology

From Middle English coveten, coveiten, coveyten, from Old French covoitier (modern French convoiter), from covoitié (“desire”), presumably modified from Latin cupiditas.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈkʌvɪt/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -ʌvɪt

Printed 2026-07-17.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 2025 December 6, “Netflix’s WBD deal swaps history for fantasy”, in FT Weekend (Lex section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 24: ↩

  2. 1991, Ted Tally, The Silence of the Lambs (motion picture), spoken by Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins): ↩

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Secondary

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