Top Definitions Synonyms Quizzes Related Content Vocab Builder Examples British noun excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions. QUIZZES QUIZ YOURSELF ON "THEIR, " "THERE, " AND "THEY'RE" Are you aware how often people swap around "their, " "there, " and "they're"? Prove you have more than a fair grasp over these commonly confused words. Which one of these commonly confused words can act as an adverb or a pronoun? Origin of greed First recorded in 1600–10; back formation from greedy synonym study for greed Greed, greediness denote an excessive, extreme desire for something, often more than one's proper share. Greed means avid desire for gain or wealth (unless some other application is indicated) and is definitely uncomplimentary in implication: His greed drove him to exploit his workers. Greediness, when unqualified, suggests a craving for food; it may, however, be applied to all avid desires, and need not be always uncomplimentary: greediness for knowledge, fame, praise.
Until 1865—less than 150 years ago—it was legal under the United States Constitution to own black people as chattel. Likely because of his own faith, Carter tries—and fails—to excuse the biblical mandate for reducing women to chattel. Within a century, chattel slavery ceased to exist in virtually every modern nation. Men, women, and children are stripped naked and inspected like chattel, and later, lynched with impunity. The statutes require that chattel mortgages should be acknowledged and recorded. The discharge and foreclosure of mortgages on vessels are governed for the most part by the rules that apply to chattel mortgages. Their form remains just what it was when woman was esteemed a pretty, desirable, and incidentally a child-producing, chattel. He was in th' chattel morgedge business on week days an' he was a Spiritulist on Sunday. I should say the same of a slave; he is a chattel owned by me; he is saved for my advantage, therefore I am indebted for him. British Dictionary definitions for chattel noun (often plural) property law chattel personal an item of movable personal property, such as furniture, domestic animals, etc chattel real an interest in land less than a freehold, such as a lease goods and chattels personal property Word Origin for chattel C13: from Old French chatel personal property, from Medieval Latin capitāle wealth; see capital 1 Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012