lust

[luhst]

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noun

intense sexual desire or appetite.
uncontrolled or illicit sexual desire or appetite; lecherousness.
a passionate or overmastering desire or craving (usually followed by for): a lust for power.

ardent enthusiasm; zest; relish: an enviable lust for life.
Obsolete.
1. pleasure or delight.
2. desire; inclination; wish.

verb (used without object)

to have intense sexual desire.
to have a yearning or desire; have a strong or excessive craving (often followed by for or after).

Origin of lust

before 900; Middle English luste, Old English lust; cognate with Dutch, German lust pleasure, desire; akin to Old Norse lyst desire; see list⁴

Related formsun·lust·ing, adjective

Synonyms for lust

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7. crave, hunger, covet, yearn.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for lust

desire, longing, sensuality, hunger, libido, thirst, excitement, fervor, craving, greed, covet, crave, yearn, itch, hanker, eroticism, yen, carnality, avidity, appetence

Examples from the Web for lust

Contemporary Examples of lust

But I say onto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Keep Christmas Commercialized!
P. J. O’Rourke
December 6, 2014
She wasn't motivated by a lust for fame; she simply wanted to control the conversation.
Porn Keeps Up with the Kardashians: Belle Knox on the Mainstreaming of Adult Stars
Aurora Snow
September 27, 2014
The 2014 roster is even more pathetic: About Last Night, Lust for Love, And So It Goes, Sex Tape.
The Romantic Comedy Is Dead
Andrew Romano
July 7, 2014
But despite being repeatedly shot down by experts, the tale of lust in the service of Allah is back.
The Enduring Myth of ‘Sex-Jihad’ Still Sates the Media
Lizzie Crocker
April 13, 2014
And his small-scale sculpture Avarice and Lust (1887) embodies the two sins via a masculine form entangled with a female one.
Mapplethorpe’s Artistic Twin
Sarah Moroz
April 8, 2014

Historical Examples of lust

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
An Explanation of Luther's Small Catechism
Joseph Stump
What a setting of blood and lust and flame and rapine for such a hero!
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates
Howard Pyle
The offspring of pride, and lust, and avarice, it is indigenous to the world.
The Works of Whittier, Volume VII (of VII)
John Greenleaf Whittier
The mere presence of game does not breed in him a lust to slaughter something.
The Forest
Stewart Edward White
My God, the very thought of it fills me with the lust of conquest.
The Law-Breakers
Ridgwell Cullum

British Dictionary definitions for lust

lust

noun

a strong desire for sexual gratification
a strong desire or drive

verb

(intr; often foll by after or for) to have a lust (for)

Word Origin for lust

Old English; related to Old High German lust desire, Old Norse losti sexual desire, Latin lascīvus playful, wanton, lustful. Compare listless

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lust

Old English lust "desire, appetite, pleasure," from Proto-Germanic *lustuz (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Dutch, German lust, Old Norse lyst, Gothic lustus "pleasure, desire, lust"), from PIE *las- "to be eager, wanton, or unruly" (cf. Latin lascivus "wanton, playful, lustful;" see lascivious).

In Middle English, "any source of pleasure or delight," also "an appetite," also "a liking for a person," also "fertility" (of soil). Sense of "sinful sexual desire, degrading animal passion" (now the main meaning) developed in late Old English from the word's use in Bible translations (e.g. lusts of the flesh to render Latin concupiscentia carnis [I John ii:16]); the cognate words in other Germanic languages tend still to mean simply "pleasure."

c.1200, "to wish, to desire," from lust (n.) and Old English lystan (see list (v.4)). Sense of "to have a strong sexual desire (for or after)" is first attested 1520s in biblical use. Related: Lusted; lusting.