desire

I desire to speak with you.

Neither shall any man desire thy land.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 34:24:

[S]eeing you desire your child to live, / Thanks, but you work against your own desire; […]

1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Lancelot and Elaine”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VI), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 88:

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

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts:

Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 15:

To put a request to (someone); to entreat.

She has desired him since they first met.

Then shee said, Did I desire a sonne of my Lord ? did I not say, Doe not deceiue me?

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 4:28:

Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vii]:

To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.

A doleful case desires a doleful song.

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

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

1651–1653, Jer[emy] Taylor, ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ [Eniautos]. A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC:

en-verb

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

desires (present singular third-person)
desiring (participle present)
desired (participle past)
desired (past)
desire (infinitive)

From Middle English desire (noun) and desiren (verb), 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 and desiderate. Displaced native Old English wilnung (“desire”) and wilnian (“to desire”).


desire

Too much desire can seriously affect one’s judgement.

He stood...filled with the desire that his son should be like him, and should have sons like him, to people the earth. It is the strongest desire that can come to a man - if it comes to him at all - stronger even than love or the desire for personal immortality.

1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 7

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

It is my desire to speak with you.

You’re my heart’s desire.

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; […].

2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

(countable) Someone or something wished for.

His desire for her kept him awake at night.

(uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.

en-noun

desire (usually uncountable, plural desires)