- present participle of crave.
craving
Americannoun
-
cravings
plural
noun
Synonym Usage
See desire.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of craving
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at crave, -ing 1
Explanation
A craving is an intense desire for something really particular. If you have a craving for pickled herring, a tuna sandwich just won't do. Must. Have. Pickled. Herring. Craving is the noun that comes from the verb crave, which comes from the Old English word crafian, meaning "to demand, beg." When we talk about cravings, it's almost like the body and not the mind that is demanding something. Pregnant women famously have crazy cravings, sending their partners to the store in the middle of the night for pickles or toffee. Some people have cravings for power or fame: the desire is so strong they can't let it go.
Vocabulary lists containing craving
Eat Your Words
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Sugar Changed the World
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The Tale of Despereaux
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Can repeatedly ordering imaginary food satisfy a real craving?
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
We can also eat because we’re craving something, when the thought or sensory memory of a specific food becomes difficult to shake.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
“I don’t have a great sense of whether he understands how much the market is craving that kind of information.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
This ongoing appreciation of silent movies speaks to a common craving for simple communal appreciation of analog pleasures.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
Arjun, tom between a desire to dash back and a craving to hear more from his father, teetered anxiously to and fro on his heels; but Nathan said no more.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
After nine months of taking it in cycles, he says his cravings for sugar and junk food have gone.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Hunger hormones surge, food cravings intensify and energy expenditure drops.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Like our atavistic cravings for fat and sugar, many cognitive biases also may have made more sense in an earlier environment—what Mr. Jones calls “time-shifted rationality.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Beware of coffee enemas,” reads the subject line of a post from a woman who did them regularly for a decade and reports feelings of exhaustion, spaciness and cravings when she tries to stop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Lourdes did not battle her cravings; rather, she submitted to them like a somnambulist to a dream.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
