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Wrath vs Envy - What's the difference?

wrath | envy |

In obsolete terms the difference between wrath and envy

is that wrath is to anger; to enrage while envy is to emulate.

As an adjective wrath

is wrathful; very angry.

wrath

English

Noun

(en-noun)
  • Great anger.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.
  • (rare) Punishment.
  • * Bible, (w) xiii. 4
    • A revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
  • (trading card games, slang) A single card that is able to destroy many creatures.

    • Synonyms

    * (great anger) fury, ire

    Derived terms

    * grapes of wrath * wrathful

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (rare) Wrathful; very angry.

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To anger; to enrage.
  • * (Chaucer)
  • * (Piers Plowman)
    • (Webster 1913)

    envy

    English

    Noun

  • Resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions).
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:No bliss enjoyed by us excites his envy more.
  • *(Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • *:Envy , to which the ignoble mind's a slave, / Is emulation in the learned or brave.
  • *
  • *:Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracydistilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its savour.
  • *1983 , (Stanley Rosen), Plato’s Sophist , p.66:
  • *:Theodorus assures Socrates that no envy will prevent the Stranger from responding
  • An object of envious notice or feeling.
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:This constitution in former days used to be the envy of the world.
  • (lb) Hatred, enmity, ill-feeling.
  • *:
  • *:Syre said la?celot vnto Arthur by this crye that ye haue made ye wyll put vs that ben aboute yow in grete Ieopardy / for there be many Knyghtes that haue grete enuye to vs / therfore whan we shal mete at the daye of Iustes there wille be hard skyfte amonge vs
  • *1598 , (William Shakespeare), :
  • *:But let me tell the World, / If he out-liue the enuie of this day, / England did neuer owe so sweet a hope, / So much misconstrued in his Wantonnesse.
  • (lb) Emulation; rivalry.
  • * (1586-c.1639)
  • *:Such as cleanliness and decency / Prompt to a virtuous envy .
  • (lb) Public odium; ill repute.
  • *(Ben Jonson) (1572-1637)
  • *:to lay the envy of the war upon Cicero

    • Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions.
  • (obsolete) To have envious feelings (at).
  • *, II.3.3:
    • I do not envy at their wealth, titles, offices;let me live quiet and at ease.
  • *Jeremy Taylor:
    • Who would envy at the prosperity of the wicked?
  • (obsolete) To give (something) to (someone) grudgingly or reluctantly; to begrudge.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.v:
    • But that sweet Cordiall, which can restore / A loue-sick hart, she did to him enuy  […].
  • (obsolete) To show malice or ill will; to rail.
  • *Shakespeare:
    • He hasenvied against the people.
  • (obsolete) To do harm to; to injure; to disparage.
  • * J. Fletcher
    • If I make a lie / To gain your love and envy my best mistress, / Put me against a wall.
  • (obsolete) To hate.
    • (Marlowe)
  • (obsolete) To emulate.
    • (Spenser)

    Related terms

    * envious * social envy English abstract nouns English transitive verbs