Definition of "avidity" []

• Ardent desire or craving; eagerness. (noun)
• Keen interest or enthusiasm: followed the tournament with avidity. (noun)
• Chemistry The dissociation-dependent strength of an acid or base. (noun)
• Chemistry Degree of affinity. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Christian -- in the adorable acceptation of that divine word -- nothing has less in common with the true, essential, and religiously social spirit of the gospel, than this insatiable ardor to acquire wealth by every possible means -- this dangerous avidity, which is far from being atoned for, in the eyes of public opinion, by a few paltry alms, bestowed in the narrow spirit of exclusion and intolerance."
• "Envy and hateful jealousy, rendered still more irritable by the leisure of a cloistered life, are the necessary consequences of such a comparison; and yet nothing is less Christian -- in the adorable acceptation of that divine word -- nothing has less in common with the true, essential, and religiously social spirit of the gospel, than this insatiable ardor to acquire wealth by every possible means -- this dangerous avidity, which is far from being atoned for, in the eyes of public opinion, by a few paltry alms, bestowed in the narrow spirit of exclusion and intolerance."
• "She herself was no exception to this reluctance: Rieff emphasizes that she hated talking about death and "loved living," had an "avidity" for life."