jealous

comparative jealouser · comparative more jealous · superlative jealousest · superlative most jealous · alternative iealous

1. Suspecting rivalry in love; troubled by worries that one might have been replaced in someone's affections; suspicious of a lover's or spouse's fidelity.First known use 13th c.

   jealous lover

   2 more examples

   She gave him a jealous look.

   She stopped, and laid her hand upon his golden head, and then bent down and kissed his brow with a chastened abandonment of tenderness that would have been beautiful to behold had not the sight cut me to the heart - for I was jealous!

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

2. Protective; zealously guarding; careful in the protection of something (or someone) one has or appreciates, especially one's spouse or lover.First known use 14th c.

   Thou ſhalt not bow downe thy ſelfe to them, nor ſerue them: For I the Lord thy God am a iealous God, viſiting the iniquitie of the fathers vpon the children, vnto the thirde and fourth generation of them that hate me:

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 20:5, column 2

   1 more example

   Soft Simon had reduced himself to the lowest class of Stalkos, or walking gentlemen, as they are termed; men who have nothing to do, and no fortune to support them, but who style themselves esquire; and who […] are jealous of that title, and of their claims to family antiquity.

   1805, Maria Edgeworth, Popular Tales, volume 2, page 148

3. Envious; feeling resentful or angered toward someone for a perceived advantage or success, material or otherwise.First known use 14th c.

   be jealous of someone/something

   4 more examples

   He was jealous of his friend’s success.

   I'm jealous because I'm single.

   I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.

   1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

   The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy.

   1899, Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

4. Suspicious; apprehensive.

   I began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to make very thick and strong.

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   At length […] the Duke demanded to know of Durward who his guide was, […] and wherefore he had been led to entertain suspicion of him. To the first of these questions Quentin Durward answered by naming Hayraddin Maugrabin, the Bohemian; […] and in reply to the third point he mentioned what had happened in the Franciscan convent near Namur, how the Bohemian had been expelled from the holy house, and how, jealous of his behaviour, he had dogged him to a rendezvous with one of William de la Marck's lanzknechts, where he overheard them arrange a plan for surprising the ladies who were under his protection.

   1823, Walter Scott, Quentin Durward

present singular third person jealouses · participle present jealousing · participle past jealoused · past jealoused · alternative iealous

1. ambitransitiveslangTo harass or attack (somebody) out of jealousy.

   If I go back, he starts his jealousing again. Drinking and jealousing.

   2005, Andrew Lansdown, The Dispossessed, page 11

   2 more examples

   Jealousing can take place: You may notice some of your fellow female co-workers that can be jealousing you.

   2014, Desmond Ihenze, Secrets for Ladies, page 198

   But another part of me is jealousing because Xifeng is looking at Ify like she is special, almost like she is wanting to call her daughter, and I am wanting Xifeng all to myself.

   2020, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebel Sisters, page 285

2. transitiveAustralian AboriginalTo deliberately make (someone) jealous of another person's (often their partner's) associations with other people.

   […] where the victim of an assault had been 'jealousing' the offender about her sister.

   2013, Thalia Anthony, Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment