desired

1. 1
   adjective

   Hoped for and longed for; representing something a person wants or aims to achieve.

   The negotiations finally produced the desired outcome for both sides.

   Years of careful saving brought them the desired home in the countryside.

   Similarintended, wanted, hoped-for, longed-for, preferred

   Oppositeunwanted, unintended, undesired

   Note

   A participle turned gradable adjective: it takes more and most, and intensifiers like highly (a highly desired holiday home). Its most familiar setting is the stock phrase have the desired effect. There it points to the intended result rather than a longed-for one, as when the chocolates didn't have the desired effect. Before a noun it reads clearly as an adjective. After be, it can blur back into the passive verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of desire.

   The king desired an heir to secure his throne.

   He had always desired recognition for his quiet, patient work.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here: the finite past (she desired peace) and the participle that follows have or be (had desired, was much desired). Behind it stand all of the verb's meanings, including the request sense, as in he desired them to wait, meaning he asked them to. That sense also covers missing or regretting something lost. The same spelling serves as the "wished-for" adjective.

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