Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To have an intense desire for. synonym: desire.
  • intransitive verb To beg earnestly for.
  • intransitive verb To have an intense desire for something

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To ask with earnestness or importunity; beseech; implore; ask with submission or humility, as a dependant; beg or entreat for.
  • To long for or eagerly desire, as a means of gratification; require or demand, in order to satisfy appetite or passion.
  • To demand a debt; dun: as, I craved him wherever I met him.
  • Synonyms Ask, Request, Beg, etc. (see ask), to yearn for, desire; to pray for.
  • To ask earnestly; beg; sue; plead: with for.

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

  • intransitive verb To desire strongly; to feel an insatiable longing.
  • transitive verb To ask with earnestness or importunity; to ask with submission or humility; to beg; to entreat; to beseech; to implore.
  • transitive verb To call for, as a gratification; to long for; hence, to require or demand.

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

  • verb transitive To want strongly as to satisfy an appetite. To long for, to yearn.
  • verb transitive Ask earnestly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb plead or ask for earnestly
  • verb have a craving, appetite, or great desire for

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English craven, from Old English crafian, to beg.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English craven, from Old English crafian ("to crave, ask, implore, demand, summon"), from Proto-Germanic *krabōnan (“to shrink, contract, be stiff, be firm”), from Proto-Indo-European *grep- (“hook, strength, force”). Cognate with Danish kræve ("to crave, ask, demand, require"), Norwegian kreve ("to demand"), Swedish kräva ("to demand, require"), Icelandic krefja ("to demand"), Icelandic krafa ("a demand, requirement"). Related to craft, grape.

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Examples

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  • This makes “Breaking Bad” a radical type of television, and also a very strange kind of must-watch: a show that you dread and crave at the same time.

    August 26, 2012