enviable

comparative more enviable · superlative most enviable

1. Arousing or likely to arouse envy.

   He [Douglas William Jerrold] had achieved many enviable dramatic successes before this time.

   1863, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Douglas Jerrold”, in My Miscellanies. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 83

   5 more examples

   Sundrie other Gent[lemen] reſt beholden to this hundred, for their dvvellings, vvho, in an enuiable mediocritie of fortune, do happilie poſſeſſe themſelues, and communicate their ſufficient means to the ſeruice of their prince, the good of their neighbours, and the bettering of their ovvn eſtate: […]

   1609, Richard Carew, “The Second Booke”, in The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC, folio 117, verso

   In the course I have taken, I have met, and do daily meet, so many vexations, that I may with truth assure you, that my situation is anything rather than enviable, though it is my happiness to act with those that are far the best that probably ever were engaged in the public service of this country at any time.

   1779 May 25 (date written), Edmund Burke, “Edmund Burke, Esq., to Richard Shackleton”, in Harold J[oseph] Laski, editor, Letters of Edmund Burke: A Selection […] (The World’s Classics; CCXXXVII), London; Edinburgh: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, published 1920, →OCLC, page 224

   To superficial observers it might well seem that William [III of England] was, at this time, one of the most enviable of human beings. He was in truth one of the most anxious and unhappy.

   1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 3

   This quarter of the city had at that time anything but an enviable reputation. To venture there at night was considered so dangerous that the soldiers from the outlying forts who came in to Paris with permission to go to the theatre, were ordered to halt at the barrière, and not to pass through the perilous district excepting in parties of three or four.

   1881, Émile Gaboriau, chapter I, in [anonymous], transl., Lecoq, the Detective. […] (Gaboriau’s Sensational Novels; IV), part I (The Search), London: Vizetelly & Co., […], published 1886, →OCLC, page 5

   As enviable as summer in the Hamptons can be -- stunning weather, beaches, greenery, produce, and yes, people -- autumn is when the east end of Long Island becomes truly magical.

   2019 September 26, Brekke Fletcher, “Fall in the Hamptons means the happiest hour of all”, in CNN, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2019

   Antonyms: unenviable