Word.ws English Dictionary

envying

envying is the present participle and gerund of envy.

Meaning of envy

Verb

envy (third-person singular simple present envies, present participle envying, simple past and past participle envied)

  1. (transitive) To feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions.
    • Moon and Kim took a cable car together to Heaven Lake, a caldera at the top of the mountain, and walked around the area with their wives and officials from both sides.
      Pictures showed Moon and Kim smiling and posing with their wives, and Moon filling a bottle with water from the lake.
      “The Chinese...2018 September 20, Hyonhee Shin, Joyce Lee, Soyoung Kim, Haejin Choi, Pyongyang Press Corps., “Fulfilling a dream, South Korea's Moon visits sacred North Korean mountain with Kim”, in Lincoln Feast...
  2. (transitive) To resentfully or discontentedly desire (something someone else has that one lacks).
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To have envious feelings (at).
    • I do not envy at their wealth, titles, offices;[…]let me live quiet and at ease.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
  4. (obsolete, transitive) To give (something) to (someone) grudgingly or reluctantly; to begrudge.
    • But that sweet Cordiall, which can restore
      A loue-sick hart, she did to him enuy[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  5. (obsolete) To show malice or ill will; to rail.
    • He has[…]envied against the people.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  6. (obsolete) To do harm to; to injure; to disparage.
    • If I make a lie
      To gain your love and envy my best mistress,
      Put me against a wall.c. 1621, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Pilgrim”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the...

See all 14 meanings of envy

Noun

envying (plural envyings)

  1. A feeling of envy.
    • Their moderation may perhaps keep them from the bitter envyings and hatred, to which ambitious worldlings are subject […]1737, Edmund Law, A Practical Treatise Upon Christian Perfection
    • "What a small, worthless thing," exclaimed Henrietta, "is our existence, filled with mean envyings, paltry hopes! and, if for one instant redeemed by a true affection, or a generous emotion, what wretchedness is sure to follow the indulgence of either!"1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Asking for an Invitation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 25

Forms of envying

pluralenvyings

Questions about envying

What does envying mean?
Envying means a feeling of envy.
What is envying the present participle and gerund of?
Envying is the present participle and gerund of envy.
What part of speech is envying?
Envying is a noun.
What is the plural of envying?
The plural of envying is envyings.

Words near envying in the dictionary

  1. envy-scrolling
  2. envyed
  3. envyfree
  4. envyfreeness
  5. envyful
  6. envying
  7. envyingly
  8. envyings
  9. envyless
  10. envyous
  11. envyscroll

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: envying (page history and authors); envy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “envying.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/envying. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.