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DESIROUS
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having or expressing desire for something
Example:
desirous of finding a quick solution to the problem
Synonyms:
desirous; wishful
Classified under:
Similar:
appetent (marked by eager desire)
athirst; hungry; thirsty ((usually followed by 'for') extremely desirous)
avid; devouring; esurient; greedy ((often followed by 'for') ardently or excessively desirous)
covetous; envious; jealous (showing extreme cupidity; painfully desirous of another's advantages)
nostalgic (unhappy about being away and longing for familiar things or persons)
homesick (longing to return home)
Antonym:
undesirous (having or feeling no desire)
Derivation:
desire (something that is desired)
Context examples:
He is desirous to be a true Swiss and to enter into foreign service, but we cannot part with him, at least until his elder brother returns to us.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
“It is impossible,” said she, “for parents to be more kind, or more desirous of their children's happiness; I have no doubt of their consenting immediately.”
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I was very desirous to see the chief temple, and particularly the tower belonging to it, which is reckoned the highest in the kingdom.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and is now desirous of getting those letters back.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Give him greeting from Sir Nigel Loring, and say that the glove which I bear in my cap belongs to the most peerless and lovely of her sex, whom I am now ready to uphold against any lady whose claim he might be desirous of advancing.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She was of strict integrity herself, with a delicate sense of honour; but she was as desirous of saving Sir Walter's feelings, as solicitous for the credit of the family, as aristocratic in her ideas of what was due to them, as anybody of sense and honesty could well be.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
He halted with awkward abruptness, with stiff fore-legs bracing himself against his momentum, almost sitting down on his haunches, so desirous was he of avoiding contact with the dog he was in the act of attacking.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
My little Dora being in good spirits, and very desirous that I should go—as I found on talking it over with her—I readily pledged myself to accompany him in accordance with his wish.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
That I was desirous of believing her indifferent is certain—but I will venture to say that my investigation and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or fears.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
My lieutenant, for instance, is a man of wonderful courage and enterprise; he is madly desirous of glory, or rather, to word my phrase more characteristically, of advancement in his profession.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
