desiderate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of desiderate
1635–45; < Latin dēsīderātus (past participle of dēsīderāre to long for, require), equivalent to dē- de- + sīder- (stem of sīdus ) heavenly body, constellation + -ātus -ate 1
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:
It seemed also, owing to its height, to desiderate wings, but there were none.
From Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Part 2: More Ghost Stories by James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes)
The classical dress becomes so thin on such occasions, that even the small degree of illusion which one may fairly desiderate is too rudely interrupted.
From Hours in a Library New Edition, with Additions. Vol. II (of 3) by Stephen, Leslie, Sir
Mind in itself is also intelligible; a pleasure is as intelligible as would be any transmutation of it into the inscrutable essence that people often desiderate.
From Practical Essays by Bain, Alexander
Discoverers should bear a little with beginners; and we suggest that, in a second edition, a full table should be given of what we desiderate.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845 by Various
He will desiderate greater variety of testimony,—the utmost variety which is attainable.
From The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels by Burgon, John William
Shall we ever have it? or will the irrational conservatism of the educated classes, in all time to come, prevent a consummation so desirable, and so desiderated by the philologist?
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 by Various
If this be the style of humour desiderated, the Thunderer may take as a well-earned compliment the American sneer that "no joke appears in the London Times, save by accident."
From The Land of Contrasts A Briton's View of His American Kin by Muirhead, James F. (James Fullarton)
These, the constantly desiderated traits of a perfect universe, are in fact the limits of what adequacy environmental satisfactions can attain, ideas hypostatized, normative of existence, but not constituting it.
From Creative Intelligence Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude by Bode, Boyd H.
It was not a play of the sort desiderated by Mrs. Simeon—the sort to earn forty thousand pounds in royalties; nor, to speak accurately, had he written it.
From Brother Copas by Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir
We part at midnight, and Griff next day gets the desiderated appointment.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine Vol. IV, No. 19, Dec 1851 by Various
Perhaps that which we are desiderating could not be better expressed than by saying that we need a ministry prophetic and apostolic.
From The Preacher and His Models The Yale Lectures on Preaching 1891 by Stalker, James
Desiderā′tion, the act of desiderating: the thing desiderated.—adj.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
That possibility, I need hardly say, is one that, as the actual world goes, we have ample grounds for desiderating.
From Pragmatism by James, William
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.
