Library / English Dictionary

THIRST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Strong desire for something (not food or drink)

Example:

hunger for affection

Synonyms:

hunger; hungriness; thirst; thirstiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("thirst" is a kind of...):

desire (an inclination to want things)

Derivation:

thirst (have a craving, appetite, or great desire for)

thirsty ((usually followed by 'for') extremely desirous)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A physiological need to drink

Synonyms:

thirst; thirstiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("thirst" is a kind of...):

drive (a physiological state corresponding to a strong need or desire)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "thirst"):

dehydration (depletion of bodily fluids)

polydipsia (excessive thirst (as in cases of diabetes or kidney dysfunction))

Derivation:

thirst (feel the need to drink)

thirsty (feeling a need or desire to drink)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have a craving, appetite, or great desire for

Synonyms:

crave; hunger; lust; starve; thirst

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "thirst" is one way to...):

desire; want (feel or have a desire for; want strongly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

thirst (strong desire for something (not food or drink))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Feel the need to drink

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "thirst" is one way to...):

ache; hurt; smart (be the source of pain)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

thirst (a physiological need to drink)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

So the student sat himself down and waited a while; but the time hung heavy upon him, and he begged earnestly that he might ascend forthwith, for his thirst for knowledge was great.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

One of the potencies of whisky is the breeding of thirst.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

We supped and camped at the very edge of the cliff, quenching our thirst with two bottles of Apollinaris which were in one of the cases.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This allele, which encodes appetite-regulating hormone protein, plays a role in satiety, thirst and anxiety and regulating growth hormone release.

(GHRL wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

These were, I shortly found, connected almost solely with the dusty nature of the job, and of the consequent thirst engendered in the operators.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Nor did he give the wounded bull opportunity to slake his burning thirst in the slender trickling streams they crossed.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

This gene is involved in regulating growth hormone release and satiety, thirst and anxiety.

(GHRL Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

He said so many other obliging things, and I knew him to be so honest a man, that I could not reject this proposal; the thirst I had of seeing the world, notwithstanding my past misfortunes, continuing as violent as ever.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The sweet wind from Europe was still whispering in the refreshed leaves, and the Atlantic was thundering in glorious liberty; my heart, dried up and scorched for a long time, swelled to the tone, and filled with living blood—my being longed for renewal—my soul thirsted for a pure draught.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)