Definition of "jealous"

jealous

/ˈd͡ʒɛləs/

adjective
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.
  Quotations
  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!
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
2. Protective; zealously guarding; careful in the protection of something (or someone) one has or appreciates, especially one's spouse or lover.
  Quotations
  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:
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Exodus 20:5, column 2
3. Envious; feeling resentful or angered toward someone for a perceived advantage or success, material or otherwise.
  Quotations
  I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.
  1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
  The neighbouring towns were jealous of this honourable supremacy.
  1899, Mark Twain, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
4. Suspecting, suspicious.
  Quotations
  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.
  1823, Walter Scott, Quentin Durward
verb
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.
  Quotations
  If I go back, he starts his jealousing again. Drinking and jealousing.
  2005, Andrew Lansdown, The Dispossessed, page 11
  Jealousing can take place: You may notice some of your fellow female co-workers that can be jealousing you.
  2014, Desmond Ihenze, Secrets for Ladies, page 198
  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.
  2020, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebel Sisters, page 285
2. (transitive, Australian Aboriginal) To deliberately make (someone) jealous of another person's (often their partner's) associations with other people.
  Quotations
  […] where the victim of an assault had been 'jealousing' the offender about her sister.
  2013, Thalia Anthony, Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment

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