Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To wish or long for; want.
- v. To express a wish for; request.
- n. A wish or longing.
- n. A request or petition.
- n. The object of longing: My greatest desire is to go back home.
- n. Sexual appetite; passion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To wish or long for; be solicitous for; have a wish for the possession, enjoyment, or being of; crave or covet: as, to desire another's happiness; to desire the good of the common wealth; to desire wealth or fame.
- To express a wish to obtain; ask; request; pray for.
- To invite.
- To require; claim; call for.
- To long for, as some lost object; regret; miss.
- Synonyms To crave, want, hanker after, yearn for.
- To beg. solicit, entreat.
- To be in a state of desire or longing.
- n. An emotion directed to the attainment or possession of an object from which pleasure, whether sensual, intellectual, or spiritual, is expected; a passion consisting in uneasiness for want of the object toward which it is directed, and the impulse to attain or possess it; in the widest sense, a state or condition of wishing.
- n. A craving or longing; yearning, as of affection; longing inclination toward something.
- n. Appetency; sensual or natural tendency.
- n. A prayer; petition; request.
- n. The object of longing; that which is wished for.
- n. Synonyms to Inclination, appetency, hankering, craving, eagerness, aspiration. See wish.
Wiktionary
- v. More formal or stronger word for want.
- v. To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
- v. Another word for want, connoting emotion.
- n. Someone or something wished for.
- n. uncountable Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.
- n. uncountable The feeling of desire.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To long for; to wish for earnestly; to covet.
- v. To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
- v. obsolete To require; to demand; to claim.
- v. obsolete To miss; to regret.
- n. The natural longing that is excited by the enjoyment or the thought of any good, and impels to action or effort its continuance or possession; an eager wish to obtain or enjoy.
- n. An expressed wish; a request; petition.
- n. Anything which is desired; an object of longing.
- n. Excessive or morbid longing; lust; appetite.
- n. obsolete Grief; regret.
WordNet 3.0
- n. something that is desired
- n. an inclination to want things
- v. expect and wish
- v. express a desire for
- v. feel or have a desire for; want strongly
- n. the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state
Etymologies
- From Middle English desiren, from Old French desir(r)er, from Latin desidero ("to long for, desire, feel the want of, miss, regret"), apparently from de- + sidus (in the phrase de sidere, "from the stars") in connection with astrological hopes. Compare consider. Compare also desiderate. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English desiren, from Old French desirer, from Latin dēsīderāre : dē-, de- + sīdus, sīder-, star. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But, for the most part, husbands and wives _can_ have children, if they so desire, _and they_ SHOULD _so desire_.”
“B.C. See Vincent Smith, _Oxford History of India_, p. 52.] [Footnote 9: This is sometimes rendered simply by desire but _desire_ in”
“Your main desire is to see America fail and blame this administration even tho they are left with the Bush mess.”
“How to bow to a muslim Kingwhose main desire is to destroy America.”
“So the fact of variability of desire is not on its own enough to cast doubt on the natural law universal goods thesis: as the good is not defined fundamentally by reference to desire, the fact of variation in desire is not enough to raise questions about universal goods.”
“The word desire has a wonderful derivation: It comes from the Latin de sidere, which means literally “from the stars.””
“Further, between appetite and desire there is no difference, except that the term desire is generally applied to men, in so far as they are conscious of their appetite, and may accordingly be thus defined: Desire is appetite with consciousness thereof.”
“Single women abound -- it's a single available man's paradise -- so if your main desire is to meet a man for a serious relationship, this is probably not the best place.”
“He enters upon his job without any pretence of enthusiasm, and his main desire is not, as one might expect, to find a more interesting and useful job, but simply to be playing cricket.”
“I think the desire is there – the ESOL/Skills for Life agenda is based on the notion of preparing learners (mostly migrant worker population) to be functional in society.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘desire’.
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Cherchez La Femme
seductress, feminine, fair sex, better half, intuition, beauty, mother, nag, bitch, gossip, jealousy, virginity and 4 more...
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Do More Than Love
List of words describing fondness or praise.
idolatrize, endearment, admire, approve, treasure, fancy, appreciate, respect, cherish, fond, desire, enjoy
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Words inspiring Consciousness
We are inundated with words and phrases all day long, NOW let us inundate our MINDs with words and phrases that Inspire, Enhance and create the environment of greater understanding of ourselves and...
Regard, Compassion, Unitive, Solace, Syncronicity, Grace, Humility, Integrity, Nuturing, desire, will, sex and 12 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-...
Words that have been used as baby names, including virtue names, nature names, place names, etc.
The title is an actual name given to a Puritan boy in the 17th century.faith, hope, grace, charity, chastity, prudence, patience, temperance, river, phoenix, stone, violet and 455 more...
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The Last Werewolf
This novel by Glen Duncan, aside from being a ripping yarn and beautifully written, is just littered with words that I had to look up and discover that often his use of the word not only fitted per...
gurns, bok, chimney breast, dichotomy, Platonic form, filthy, Platonic Form, mathematics, BAM, skirls, clarity, blundering and 298 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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junemoonchild's Favorite Words
Aubrey, astrology, Cancer, Taurus, dybbuk, enchantress, love, mystery, mysteriarch, spirit, melancholy, disintegration and 129 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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words i love
mahogany, serenity, quell, requiem, parhelion, echo, surfacing, ethereal, melodic, vivid, sirenic, sprightly and 122 more...
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Idk, I like these words.
ethereality, apathy, consideration, soul, safety, lone wolf, darkness, pressure, ocean, few, collapse, believe and 155 more...
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Process
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favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for desire.
Louises See love comments Mar 26, 2012
sarahlena das Verlangen
May 27, 2009
sonofgroucho As in "That Obscure Object of Desire". Sep 22, 2007