jealous

• iealous (obsolete)

First attested in 1382. From Middle English jelous, gelous, gelus, from Old French jalous, from Late Latin zelosus, from Ancient Greek ζῆλος (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”). Doublet of zealous.

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛləs/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: jeal‧ous
• Rhymes: -ɛləs

jealous (comparative jealouser or more jealous, superlative jealousest or most jealous)

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

     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!

2. Protective; zealously guarding; careful in the protection of something (or someone) one has or appreciates, especially one's spouse or lover.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Exodus 20:5, column 2:

     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:

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

     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.

3. Envious; feeling resentful or angered toward someone for a perceived advantage or success, material or otherwise.
   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray:

     I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.

   • 1899, Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg:

     The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy.

   I'm jealous because I'm single.

4. Suspicious; apprehensive.
   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, , London: W Taylor , →OCLC:

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

   • 1823, Walter Scott, Quentin Durward:

     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.

Some usage guides seek to distinguish “jealous” from “envious”, using jealous to mean “protective of one’s own position or possessions” – one “jealously guards what one has” – and envious to mean “desirous of others’ position or possessions” – one “envies what others have”.^[1] This distinction is also maintained in the psychological and philosophical literature.^[2][3] In common usage, however, although envious is always with respect to others’ possessions or fortune, jealous does not always refer strictly to one’s own possessions (as shown by the citations above).

• jealous as a Barbary pigeon (adjective)
• jealous husbands problem (noun)
• jealous-like (adjective)
• jealously (adverb)
• jealousy (noun)
• jealousness (noun)

• zeal
• zealot
• zealous

jealous (third-person singular simple present jealouses, present participle jealousing, simple past and past participle jealoused)

1. (transitive, intransitive, slang) To harass or attack (somebody) out of jealousy.
   • 2005, Andrew Lansdown, The Dispossessed, page 11:

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

   • 2014, Desmond Ihenze, Secrets for Ladies, page 198:

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

   • 2020, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebel Sisters, page 285:

     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.

2. (transitive, Australian Aboriginal) To deliberately make (someone) jealous of another person's (often their partner's) associations with other people.
   • 2013, Thalia Anthony, Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment:

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

• jalouse