JEALOUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Jealous

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/dʒˈɛləs/ Listen

adjective

Jealous adj.

1.

Zealous; solicitous; vigilant; anxiously watchful. "I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts." "How nicely jealous is every one of us of his own repute!"

2.

Apprehensive; anxious; suspiciously watchful. "'This doing wrong creates such doubts as these, Renders us jealous and disturbs our peace." "The people are so jealous of the clergy's ambition."

3.

Demanding exclusive devotion; intolerant of rivalry. "Thou shalt worship no other God; for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."

4.

Disposed to suspect rivalry in matters of interest and affection; apprehensive regarding the motives of possible rivals, or the fidelity of friends; distrustful; having morbid fear of rivalry in love or preference given to another; painfully suspicious of the faithfulness of husband, wife, or lover. "If the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife." "To both these sisters have I sworn my love: Each jealous of the other, as the stung Are of the adder." "It is one of the best bonds, both of chastity and obedience, in the wife, if she think her husband wise; which she will never do if she find him jealous."

Synonyms: Suspicious; anxious; envious. Jealous, Suspicious. Suspicious is the wider term. We suspect a person when we distrust his honesty and imagine he has some bad design. We are jealous when we suspect him of aiming to deprive us of what we dearly prize. Iago began by awakening the suspicions of Othello, and converted them at last into jealousy. "Suspicion may be excited by some kind of accusation, not supported by evidence sufficient for conviction, but sufficient to trouble the repose of confidence." "Jealousy is a painful apprehension of rivalship in cases that are peculiarly interesting to us."

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Etymology of 'Jealous'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Jealous" Quotes from Famous Books

... me jealous?" says she, stamping her foot. "A score of pretty girls are languishing for a glimpse of you,—Jennie and Bess Fotheringay, and Betty Tayloe, and Heaven knows how many others. They are actually accusing me of keeping you trailing. 'La, girls!' said I, 'if you will but ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... lace handkerchief she held in her hands to shreds. This, then, was Frank's loyalty to her, this was how he consoled himself for her absence. With this chit of a girl, with whom he probably laughed at her, Violet's readiness to give up reputation, good fame, home, for him. She almost sobbed with jealous rage at the idea. She forgot her own infidelities and want of remembrance and felt herself to be a deceived and much-abused woman. But she would not bear such treatment meekly. Frank was hers; no other woman had a right to him, should ...

— The Jungle Girl • Gordon Casserly

... in order fairly to collect the king's customs. It has since been found mutually beneficial to all parties that all measurable goods should be meted out by sworn meters, carefully selected for their responsible duties, and over whom is maintained a constant and jealous supervision. The Court of Common Council appoint ten "corn-meters in trust," who are placed over 150 deputy meters, chosen by the Corn and Coal and Finance Committee, and sworn in the Lord Mayor's Court to do ...

— The Corporation of London: Its Rights and Privileges • William Ferneley Allen

... as an extenuation of this rude attack, that the good priest was jealous for the honour of his God, whose temple he supposed was suffering profanation by indecent conduct: and that, instead of turning tale-bearer and whisperer, he openly expressed his sentiments to the party concerned, ...

— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox

... of a sinister selfishness, and may readily permit themselves to be hoodwinked by sly demagogues; nay, they might even be capable of viewing their greatest benefactors, the frugal and enterprising capitalists, with a jealous and hostile eye. Here proper training alone can avail, or national bankruptcy and other horrors must follow, since a revolution of the workers could hardly fail to occur. And our bourgeois is perfectly justified in his fears. If the centralisation of population stimulates and develops the property-holding ...

— The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 - with a Preface written in 1892 • Frederick Engels

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