desire

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Craving

Nouns

1. desire, wish, fancy, fantasy; want, need (see necessity).

2. desirability, appeal, magnetism, attraction.

3. inclination, mind, devices, animus, partiality, penchant, predilection; weakness, proclivity (see tendency); willingness; liking, love, fondness, relish; choice. Informal, yen. See intention, will.

4. longing, hankering, avidity, longing or wistful eye; solicitude, yearning, coveting, envy; aspiration, [vaulting] ambition, fire in the belly; alacrity, eagerness, impatience, overanxiety; hope.

5. (hunger) [sharp] appetite, keenness, hunger, torment of Tantalus, ravenousness, voracity, gluttony; thirst, thirstiness; itch[ing]. Informal, sweettooth, the munchies.

6. avarice, greed[iness], itching palm, covetousness, acquisitiveness, grasping, craving, rapacity, passion, rage, furor, mania, dipsomania, kleptomania; prurience, cacoëthes, cupidity, lust, concupiscence, ardor, carnality, desires of the flesh. Slang, horniness, itch, the hots, nasties, blue balls, jungle fever, flame. See sex.

7. desirer, lover (see love), votary, devotee, fiend, aspirant, social climber, solicitant, candidate; lecher. Informal, fan. Slang, breadhead, wannabe, eager beaver, knocker, mink.

8. (something desired) desideratum, want, requirement; heart's desire, consummation devoutly to be wished; height of one's ambition, whim[sy].

Verbs

1. desire, wish (for); be desirous, have a longing; hope; care for, like, list (archaic), take to, take kindly to, cling to, take a fancy to, fancy; prefer, choose (see choice); have an eye or mind to; have a fancy for, set one's eyes upon; take into one's head, have at heart, be bent upon; set one's cap for, set one's sights, have one's eye on, set one's heart or mind upon, covet, envy, want, miss, need, feel the want of, feel like; would fain have or do; would be glad of. Informal, give one's right arm for, kill for. Slang, have the hots for.

2. be hungry, have a good appetite; hunger, thirst, crave, lust, itch, or hanker after, make a play for; die for; burn to, have one's fingers itch to; desiderate; sigh, cry, gasp, pine, pant, languish, yearn, or long for; be on thorns for, hope for; aspire after; champ at the bit; catch at, grasp at, jump at; fish for, whistle for.

3. be greedy, have eyes bigger than one's belly, make a pig of oneself.

4. (provoke desire) cause, create, excite, or provoke desire, whet the appetite; appetize, titillate, take one's fancy, tempt; hold out temptation, tantalize, make one's mouth water.

Adjectives

1. desirous, desiring, inclined, fain, wishful, optative.

2. craving, hungry, sharp-set, peckish, ravening, with an empty stomach, pinched with hunger, famished; hungry as a hunter, horse, or church-mouse; thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, dry; greedy [as a hog], piggish; overeager; voracious, omnivorous, ravenous, openmouthed, covetous, avaricious, rapacious, grasping, extortionate, exacting, sordid, insatiable, insatiate; unquenchable, quenchless; unsatisfied, unsated, unslaked.

3. eager, avid, keen; burning, fervent, impatient; set, bent, or intent on, mad after, rabid, dying for, bad off for, devoured by desire; aspiring, ambitious, vaulting, sky-aspiring. Slang, horny, hard up, hot to trot, queer for, rooty.

4. desirable; desired, sought after, in demand; pleasing (see pleasure); appetizing, tantalizing, seductive.

Adverbs — desirously, wistfully, fain, would that, if only; solicitously, yearningly, fondly, ambitiously, etc.; with bells on.

Phrases — you cannot have your cake and eat it too; there is always room at the top; the more you get the more you want.

Quotations — Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? (Robert Browning), There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed (Frank Buchman), If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves there wouldn't be enough to go round (Christina Stead), Hitch your wagon to a star (Emerson), Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on the other (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see hate, sufficiency, indifference.

II

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus)

I

n.

want, longing, hunger, thirst, need, *hankering, ache, wish, appetite, passion, lust, libido, fervor, urge, yearning, mania, itch. ''The warm beast . . . that lies curled up in our loins and stretches itself with a fierce gentleness.''—Albert Camus. ''A perpetual rack.''—Robert Burton.

ANT.: aversion, revulsion

II

v.

want, long for, hunger for, thirst after, crave, need, *hanker for, ache for, covet, wish for, lust after, yearn for.

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) I verb 1. To have the desire or inclination to: choose, like1, please, want, will, wish. Idioms: have a mind, see fit. See DESIRE. 2. To have a strong longing for: ache, covet, hanker, long2, pant, pine, want, wish, yearn. Informal: hone2. See DESIRE. II noun 1. A strong wanting of what promises enjoyment or pleasure: appetence, appetency, appetite, craving, hunger, itch, longing, lust, thirst, wish, yearning, yen. See DESIRE. 2. Sexual hunger: amativeness, concupiscence, eroticism, erotism, itch, libidinousness, lust, lustfulness, passion, prurience, pruriency. See DESIRE, SEX.