thirst

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A sensation of dryness in the mouth and throat related to a need or desire to drink.
2. n. The desire to drink.
3. n. An insistent desire; a craving: a thirst for knowledge.
4. v. To feel a need to drink.
5. v. To have a strong craving; yearn.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A waterless region.
2. n. A feeling of dryness in the mouth and throat; the uncomfortable sensations arising from the want of fluid nutriment; the uneasiness or suffering occasioned by want of drink; vehement desire for drink. The sensations of thirst are chiefly referred to the thorax and fauces, but the condition is really one affecting the entire body. The excessive pains of thirst compared with those of hunger are due to the fact that the deprivation of liquids is a condition with which all the tissues sympathize. Every solid and every fluid of the body contains water, and hence abstraction or diminution of the watery constituents is followed by a general depression of the whole system. Thirst is a common symptom of febrile and other diseases. Death from thirst, as of persons in a desert, appears to be invariably preceded by acute mania.
3. n. Figuratively, an ardent desire for anything; a craving.
4. To experience uncomfortable sensations for want of drink; have desire to drink; be dry.
5. To have a vehement desire; crave.
6. To have a thirst for, literally or figuratively; desire ardently; crave: now usually followed by an infinitive as the object.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (as fear, excitement, etc.) which arrests the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane; hence, the condition producing this sensation.
2. n. figurative A want and eager desire after anything; a craving or longing; — usually with for, of, or after; as, the thirst for gold.
3. v. To desire.
4. v. To be thirsty.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (as fear, excitement, etc.) which arrests the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane; hence, the condition producing this sensation.
2. n. Fig.: A want and eager desire after anything; a craving or longing; -- usually with for, of, or after.
3. v. To feel thirst; to experience a painful or uneasy sensation of the throat or fauces, as for want of drink.
4. v. To have a vehement desire.
5. v. rare To have a thirst for.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a physiological need to drink
2. n. strong desire for something (not food or drink)
3. v. have a craving, appetite, or great desire for
4. v. feel the need to drink