acquisitive

acquisitive (əˈkwɪzɪtɪv)

—*adj*
	inclined or eager to acquire things, esp material possessions: we currently live in an acquisitive society

ac'quisitively

—*adv*

ac'quisitiveness

—n

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Word Origin & History

acquisitive

1630s, "owned through acquisition," from L. acquisitivus, pp. of acquirere (see acquisition). Meaning "given to acquisition, avaricious" is from 1826 (in acquisitiveness).

Example sentences

He smokes cigars, scratches matches on others' clothing, and is acquisitive

right down the line.

It was a bottom-line, acquisitive sort of era, with little time for the

niceties of tolerance.

It makes a distinction between tourism and travel, and stresses inquisitive not

acquisitive trips.

Buckaroos tend not to be acquisitive or materialistic.

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Related Words

accumulative grasping

mercenary Sloane Ranger

Matching Quote

"Any rich, unprogressive old party with that particularly grasping, acquisitive form of mentality known as financial genius can own a paper that is the intellectual meat and drink of thousands of tired, hurried men, men too involved in the business of modern living to swallow anything but predigested food. For two cents the voter buys his politics, prejudices, and philosophy. A year later there is a new political ring or a change in the paper's ownership, consequence: more confusion, more contradiction, a sudden inrush of new ideas, their tempering, their distillation, the reaction against them."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald