desire

desire

noun

Definition of DESIRE

1

a strong wish for something <a desire for adventure and excitement prompted him to travel to Africa>

Synonyms appetency, appetite, craving, drive, hankering, hunger, itch, jones [slang], letch, longing, lust, passion, pining, thirst, thirstiness, urge, yearning, yen

Related Words compulsion, impulse, impulsion, will, zeal; liking, love, taste, weakness; eagerness, impatience; want, wish; necessity, need, requirement; obsession; acquisitiveness, avarice, avariciousness, avidity, covetousness, cupidity, greed, greediness, rapaciousness, rapacity; cacoëthes, mania

Near Antonyms abhorrence, abomination, allergy, averseness, aversion, disfavor, disgust, disinclination, dislike, disliking, distaste, hatred, loathing, nausea, repugnance, repulsion, revulsion; apathy, indifference, insouciance, nonchalance, unconcern

2

sexual appetite <the nude pictures were clearly intended to provoke desire>

Synonyms concupiscence, eroticism, horniness, hots, itch, lech, letch, libidinousness, lust, lustfulness, lustihood, passion, salaciousness

Related Words libido; ardor, heat, rut; erotomania, hypersexuality, lecherousness, lechery, nymphomania, satyriasis; venery

Near Antonyms abstinence, celibacy, chastity; frigidity, frigidness

3

an earnest request <at the delegate's desire, the voice vote on the controversial measure was followed by an actual roll call>

Synonyms adjuration, appeal, conjuration, cry, desire, entreaty, petition, pleading, prayer, solicitation, suit, suppliance, supplication

Related Words application, requisition; call, claim, demand, insistence