desire

From Middle English desiren, from Old French desirer, desirrer, from Latin dēsīderō (“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.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dĭ-zīrʹ, dĭ-zīʹər, IPA^(key): /dɪˈzaɪə/
• (General American) enPR: dĭ-zīrʹ, dĭ-zīʹər, dē-zīrʹ, dē-zīʹər, IPA^(key): /dɪˈzaɪɹ/, /dɪˈzaɪɚ/, /diˈzaɪɹ/, /diˈzaɪɚ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: de‧sire

desire (third-person singular simple present desires, present participle desiring, simple past and past participle desired)

1. To want; to wish for earnestly.

   I desire to speak with you.

   • Bible, Exodus xxxiv. 24

     Neither shall any man desire thy land.

   • Tennyson

     Ye desire your child to live.

2. To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts XIII:

     And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎:

     That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

3. To want emotionally or sexually.

   She has desired him since they first met.

4. To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
   • Bible, 2 Kings iv. 28

     Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord?

   • Shakespeare

     Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.

5. To require; to demand; to claim.
   • Spenser

     A doleful case desires a doleful song.

6. To miss; to regret.
   • Jeremy Taylor

     She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.

• desideratum
• desirable
• desirability
• desirableness
• undesirability
• undesirableness

desire (usually uncountable, plural desires)

1. (countable) Someone or something wished for.
   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

   It is my desire to speak with you.

   You’re my heart’s desire.

2. (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.

   His desire for her kept him awake at night.

3. (uncountable) The feeling of desiring; an eager longing for something.

   Too much desire can seriously affect one’s judgment.

4. (uncountable) Motivation. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• (one or thing wished for): wanna, want-to; See also Thesaurus:desire
• (motivation): wanna, want-to

• velleity

• desirable
• desiring-production
• desirous

• desire in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• desire in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• desier, eiders, eresid, redies, reside