Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1200-1300
Language: Old French
Origin: envie, from Latin invidia, from invidere 'to look at with bad feelings', from videre 'to see'

envy

2 noun
     
envy2 [uncountable]
1 the feeling of wanting something that someone else has [↪ jealousy]
with envy
He watched the others with envy.
envy of
his envy of the young man's success
twinge/pang of envy
I felt a twinge of envy when I saw them together.
She could see that all the other girls were green with envy (=feeling a lot of envy).
2

be the envy of somebody

to be something that other people admire and want to have very much:
an education system that is the envy of all European countries
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary