Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class VI. Words Relating to the Sentient and Moral Powers
Section II. Personal Affections
3. Prospective Affections

865. Desire.

   NOUN:DESIRE, wish, fancy, fantasy; inclination, leaning, bent, mind, animus, partiality, penchant [F.], predilection; propensity [See Affections]; willingness [See Willingness]; liking, love, fondness, relish.
  longing, hankering, yearning, coveting; aspiration, ambition, vaulting ambition; eagerness, zeal, ardor, empressement [F.], breathless impatience, solicitude, anxiety, overanxiety; impetuosity [See Excitability].
  NEED, want, exigency, urgency, necessity.
  APPETITE, appetition, appetence, appetency; sharp appetite, keenness, hunger, stomach, twist; thirst, thirstiness; drought or drouth, mouth-watering.
  edge of -appetite, – hunger; torment of Tantalus; sweet tooth [colloq.], lickerish (or liquorish) tooth; longing -, wistful -, sheep’s- eyes.
  AVIDITY, greed, greediness, covetousness, ravenousness &c. adj.; grasping, craving, canine appetite, rapacity; voracity (gluttony) [See Gluttony].
  PASSION, rage, furor, frenzy, mania, manie [obs.]; itching palm; inextinguishable desire; itch, itching, prurience, cacoëthes, cupidity, lust, concupiscence; kleptomania, dipsomania; monomania, idée fixe [F.].
  [OF ANIMALS] heat, rut, œstrus.
  [PERSON DESIRING] lover, amateur, votary, devotee, aspirant, solicitant, candidate; cormorant [See Gluttony]; parasite, sycophant.
  [OBJECT OF DESIRE] desideratum, desideration; want (requirement) [See Requirement]; “a consummation devoutly to be wish’d” [Hamlet]; attraction, magnet, loadstone, lure, allurement, fancy, temptation, seduction, fascination, prestige, height of one’s ambition, idol; whim, whimsey or whimsy, whim-wham; maggot; hobby, hobbyhorse [rare].
  Fortunatus’s cap; wishing -cap, – stone, – well; love potion; aphrodisiac.
   VERB:DESIRE; wish, wish for; be desirous &c. adj.; have a longing &c. n.; hope [See Hope].
  care for, affect, like, list [archaic]; take to, cling to, take a fancy to; fancy; prefer (choose) [See Choice]; have an eye to, have a mind to; find it in one’s heart &c. (be willing) [See Willingness]; have a fancy for, set one’s eyes upon; cast sheep’s eyes upon, look sweet upon [colloq.]; take into one’s head, have at heart, be bent upon; set one’s cap at [colloq.], set one’s heart upon, set one’s mind upon; covet.
  hunger -, thirst -, crave -, lust -, itch -, hanker -, run mad- after; raven for, die for; burn to; sigh -, cry -, gape -, gasp -, pine -, pant -, languish -, yearn -, long -, be on thorns -, hope- for; aspire after; catch at, grasp at, jump at.
  woo, court, ogle, solicit; fish for, whistle for, put up for [slang].
  WANT, miss, need, lack, desiderate, feel the want of; would fain -have, – do; would be glad of.
  HUNGER; be hungry &c. adj.; have a good appetite, play a good knife and fork [colloq.].
  ATTRACT, allure; cause -, create -, raise -, excite -, provoke- desire; whet the appetite; appetize, titillate, take one’s fancy, tempt; hold out -temptation, – allurement; tantalize, make one’s mouth water, faire venir l’eau à la bouche [F.].
  GRATIFY DESIRE &c. (give pleasure) [See Pleasurableness].
   ADJECTIVE:DESIROUS; desiring &c. v.; orectic, appetitive; inclined (willing) [See Willingness]; partial to [colloq.]; fain, wishful, longing, wistful; optative; anxious, curious; at a loss for, sedulous, solicitous.
  eager, avid, keen; burning, fervent, ardent; agog; all agog; breathless; impatient (impetuous) [See Excitability]; bent -, intent -, set- -on, – upon; mad after, enragé [F.], rabid, dying for, devoured by desire.
  aspiring, ambitious, vaulting, skyaspiring, high-reaching.
  CRAVING, hungry, sharp-set, peckish [colloq.], ravening, with an empty stomach, esurient, lickerish, thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, pinched with hunger, famished, dry, droughty or drouthy; hungry as a -hunter, – hawk, – horse, – church mouse.
  GREEDY, – as a hog; overeager, voracious; ravenous, – as a wolf; open-mouthed, covetous, rapacious, grasping, extortionate, exacting, sordid, alieni appetens [L.]; insatiable, insatiate, unquenchable, quenchless; omnivorous.
  unsatisfied, unsated, unslaked.
  DESIRABLE; desired &c. v.; in demand, popular; pleasing &c. (giving pleasure) [See Pleasurableness]; appetizing, appetible; tantalizing.
   ADVERB:FAIN; with eager appetite; wistfully &c. adj.
   INTERJECTION:would that! would it were! O for! if only! esto perpetua! [L.].    QUOTATIONS:

1. The wish being father to the thought.
2. Sua cuique voluptas.
3. Hoc erat in votis.
4. The mouth watering, the fingers itching.
5. Aut Cæsar aut nullus.
6. Cassius has a lean and hungry look.—Julius Cæsar
7. Hungry as the grave.—Thomson
8. I was born to other things.—Tennyson.
9. Not what we wish but what we want.—Merrick
10. Such joy ambition finds.—Paradise Lost
11. The sea hath bounds but deep desire hath none.—Venus and Adonis
12. Ubi mel ibi apes.
13. Let us pay with our bodies for our souls’ desire.—Roosevelt