Green with envy and the green-eyed monster Thanks to Shakespeare, there is a strong association between jealousy, envy , and the color green. The phrase green with envy means feeling a strong sense of covetousness for what someone else has. Shakespeare described envy as the green sickness in the play Anthony and Cleopatra. Envy is a mostly negative feeling of desire for something that someone else has and you do not . Envy is not a good feeling—it can be described as a mix of admiration and discontent. But it’s not necessarily malicious. Envy is very similar in meaning to jealousy. Learn the meaning of envy as a verb and a noun, and how to use it in different contexts. Find out how to say envy in other languages, and see examples from the Cambridge English Corpus. The meaning of ENVY is painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage. How to use envy in a sentence.
