coveted; coveting; covets
1
: to wish for earnestly
covet an award
2
: to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably
The king's brother coveted the throne.
: to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another
Examples of covet in a Sentence
The oldest of the students, she had become a confidante of Fern's and she alone was allowed to call her by her first name. It was not a privilege the others coveted.
—
Edward P. Jones, The Known World, 2003
The only Commandment I'd breached, besides killing that bird with my air rifle, was that I had coveted Bobby Entrekin's electric train. It blew real smoke. Mine didn't.
—Lewis Grizzard, Reader's Digest, January 1992
He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.
—Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, 1876
His religion warns against coveting material goods.
I've been coveting that sleek sports car in the showroom for some time now.
Recent Examples on the Web
Image Its importance became clear in recent years, when other shipping routes — the Panama Canal coveted by Mr. Trump, for instance — were severely restricted or closed, said Rico Luman, senior economist for transport, logistics and automotive at ING Research.
—Peter Eavis, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2025
As a label, Louboutin is always a little decadent and delicious, thanks to its sky-high stilettos and fun flats, which tend to have fans salivating at the mouth and coveting more.
—Freya Drohan, Vogue, 27 Mar. 2025
And because Remick is also an insecure sad sack who desperately covets recognition, his personal inadequacies prevent him from doing anything particularly well.
—Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2025
At 41, Coventry is the youngest candidate by a decade, and the one most likely to be in tune with Generation Z, whose attention and favor the IOC openly covets.
—Blythe Lawrence, Forbes, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for covet
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Cite this Entry
“Covet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/covet. Accessed 7 Apr. 2025.
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