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REFERENCE

greedy

adj.
US //ˈɡɹidi// UK //ɡɹˈiːdi// greedy
  1. 1 wanting wealth or power (adj.)
    B1 Intermediate

    wanting more money, power, or things than you actually need.

    having or showing an intense and selfish desire for wealth, power, or status.

    Example

    The greedy businessman didn't care if his workers were poor as long as he made a profit.

    Example

    The novel depicts a greedy landlord who prioritises his quarterly dividends over the basic safety and well-being of his tenants.
  2. 2 wanting too much food (adj.)
    B1 Intermediate

    wanting to eat more food than you need or eating very quickly so others get less.

    having an excessive appetite for food; gluttonous.

    Example

    Don't be greedy and eat all the cookies before the guests arrive.

    Example

    He felt embarrassed by his greedy behaviour at the buffet, having piled his plate high before the rest of the party had been served.
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  1. 3 computing/algorithms (adj.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Computing

    describing a way of solving a problem by always picking the best choice right now.

    relating to an algorithm that makes the locally optimal choice at each stage with the hope of finding a global optimum.

    Example

    A greedy algorithm might find a solution quickly, but it isn't always the best one.

    Example

    While the greedy approach is computationally efficient for the change-making problem, it fails to produce an optimal result for certain non-standard currency systems.

  2. 4 matching text (adj.)
    C2 Proficiency Technical Computing

    in computer searches, matching the longest possible piece of text.

    describing a regular expression quantifier that matches as many characters as possible.

    Example

    The search was too greedy and highlighted the whole paragraph instead of just one word.

    Example

    By default, the star operator is greedy, meaning it will consume the entire string unless a question mark is added to make it lazy.
Origin

From Middle English gredy, from Anglian Old English grēdiġ (“greedy, hungry, eager”) (cognate West Saxon form grǣdiġ), from Proto-Germanic grēdagaz (“hungry”), from Proto-Germanic grēdaz, grēduz, grēdô (“hunger”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer-. Equivalent to greed + -y. Cognate with Old Saxon grādag (“greedy”), Dutch graag (“gladly, willingly”), Old High German grātag (“greedy”), Danish grådig (“greedy”), Norwegian Bokmål grådig (“greedy”) (from Old Norse gráðigr (“greedy”), gráði (“greed, hunger”)), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (grēdags, “hungry”). Sanskrit गृद्धि (gṛddhi, “greed”) is a false cognate.

Word family

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