desire

Less common meanings

5. 5
   want sexuallyverbtransitive

   To want someone emotionally or sexually.

   It's possible to desire someone you barely know.

   Years into the marriage, she still desired him as much as ever.

   Similarwant, fancy, crave

6. 6
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To require something as necessary, or to demand or claim it as one's due.

   A doleful case desires a doleful song.

   c. 1580, Edmund Spenser, The Teares of the Muses

   Similarneed, require, demand, want

   Note

   The subject of this sense is usually a situation, not a person. Spenser's "A doleful case desires a doleful song," from The Teares of the Muses (1591), means that the occasion calls for one. Nobody here wishes for anything; the circumstance itself makes the demand. Present-day writers would use requires or calls for, so this use gives a sentence a deliberately old-fashioned sound. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Spenser's The Teares of the Muses contains the quoted line, here given with modernized spelling. en.wikisource.org
   • The Teares of the Muses was first published in 1591. celm.folger.edu
   • Desires in this quotation means requires or demands. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   verbdatedtransitive

   To ask for something, or ask someone to do something; to request formally.

   Kindly desire the porter to carry our bags up to the room before dinner.

   Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.

   c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”

   Similarask, request

   Note

   In this sense the thing asked for is the object, and the person asked can follow with of. "Did I desire a sonne of my Lord?" asks a woman in the King James Bible of 1611. Today this use sounds old-fashioned and turns up mostly in older fiction and very formal writing. The person can also be the object, as in King Lear's "Desire him to go in," which asks someone to act. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • The thing requested can be the object of desire, with the person asked introduced by of. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quotation has the stated wording in the 1611 King James Bible, at 2 Kings 4:28. en.wiktionary.org
   • The speaker of the biblical quotation is a woman, the child's mother. en.wikisource.org
   • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
   • King Lear contains the quoted words, using a person as the object of desire followed by an infinitive requesting action; the Doctor speaks the line. shakespeare.mit.edu
8. 8
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To miss someone or something lost; to feel regret over their absence.

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

   1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year.

   Similarmiss, mourn, lament

   Note

   This sense shows the other side of the Latin root. Dēsīderō meant "to miss" and "to regret" as well as "to long for," and this sense keeps the grief for what is gone. Jeremy Taylor wrote that a good woman "shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies": she is desired because she is absent. The sense is obsolete, so read it in early modern prose as missing, not wanting. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Latin dēsīderō meant to miss or regret as well as to long for. en.wiktionary.org
   • Jeremy Taylor wrote the quoted words about a virtuous woman. gutenberg.org
   • The historical sense expresses regret for someone lost, which explains 'desired' in Taylor's quotation. upload.wikimedia.org