Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Driven by or filled with strong sexual desire; concupiscent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Characterized by concupiscence; concupiscent.
  • Characterized by desire or longing; appetitive.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Exciting to, or liable to be affected by, concupiscence; provoking lustful desires.
  • adjective Exciting desire, good or evil.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Greatly to be desired or lusted after; exciting concupiscence.
  • adjective Pertaining to concupiscence or lust; characterized by strong desire.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French concupiscible, from Latin concupiscibilis.

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Examples

  • The other principle of the sinful act is the proper and proximate principle which elicits the sinful act: thus the concupiscible is the principle of gluttony and lust, wherefore these sins are said to be in the concupiscible.

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas

  • Now the effect of the vice of lust is that the lower appetite, namely the concupiscible, is most vehemently intent on its object, to wit, the object of pleasure, on account of the vehemence of the pleasure.

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas

  • Reply Obj. 1: The concupiscible is a part of the sensitive, not of the intellective appetite, as proved in the First Part (Q. 81, A. 2): wherefore the love which is in the concupiscible, is the love of sensible good: nor can the concupiscible reach to the Divine good which is an intelligible good; the will alone can.

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas

  • One reading of that, encouraged by the lines immediately following the blank page, is to take 'concupiscible' as synonymous with desirable; but it could be a play on words, as well, since 'concupiscible' can also mean 'filled with strong desire, lustful', which describes the widow to a T, as she lays siege to poor uncle Toby in order to get him as a husband.

    Archive 2005-07-01 2005

  • One reading of that, encouraged by the lines immediately following the blank page, is to take 'concupiscible' as synonymous with desirable; but it could be a play on words, as well, since 'concupiscible' can also mean 'filled with strong desire, lustful', which describes the widow to a T, as she lays siege to poor uncle Toby in order to get him as a husband.

    Three Peculiar Pages 2005

  • The laws of economics are descriptions of what human beings will generally do if they yield themselves fully to their concupiscible appetite for gain.

    The Social Mission of the Catholic Church 2008

  • The so-called laws of economics, however, are about the actions of free human persons.11 Because of this freedom they can yield or refuse to yield to their various concupiscible appetites.

    The Social Mission of the Catholic Church 2008

  • This concupiscible appetite, howsoever it may seem to carry with it a show of pleasure and delight, and our concupiscences most part affect us with content and a pleasing object, yet if they be in extremes, they rack and wring us on the other side.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • These concupiscible and irascible appetites are as the two twists of a rope, mutually mixed one with the other, and both twining about the heart: both good, as Austin, holds, l.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • They are commonly [1629] reduced into two inclinations, irascible and concupiscible.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

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