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green-eyed monster. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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green-eyed monster in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
green + eye + monster. Coined by William Shakespeare in his play Othello.
Noun
green-eyed monster (plural green-eyed monsters)
- (colloquial, usually with the) Envy, jealousy, covetousness.
c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 324, column 1:[Iago:] Oh, beware my Lord, of iealouſie, / It is the greene-ey'd Monſter, which doth mocke / The meate it feeds on.
1856, Mary Jane Holmes, chapter X, in ’Lena Rivers:She was not to be convinced, and so poor Mr. Graham, who was really exceedingly polite and affable to the ladies, was almost constantly provoking the green-eyed monster by his attentions to some one of the fair sex.
1916, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Bab, a Sub-Deb:It was Harold. I decided to have him dark, with a very small black mustache, and passionate eyes. I felt, too, that he would be jealous. The eyes would be of the smoldering type, showing the green-eyed monster beneath.
Derived terms