THIRST • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Thirst

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/θərst/ Listen

noun

Thirst n.

A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (as fear, excitement, etc.) which arrests the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane; hence, the condition producing this sensation. "Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, and our children... with thirst?" "With thirst, with cold, with hunger so confounded."

Fig.: A want and eager desire after anything; a craving or longing; usually with for, of, or after; as, the thirst for gold. "Thirst of worldy good." "The thirst I had of knowledge."

verb

Thirst v. t. (past & past part. thirsted; pres. part. thirsting)

To feel thirst; to experience a painful or uneasy sensation of the throat or fauces, as for want of drink. "The people thirsted there for water."

To have a vehement desire. "My soul thirsteth for... the living God."

Thirst v. t. To have a thirst for. (R.) "He seeks his keeper's flesh, and thirsts his blood."

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Etymology of 'Thirst'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Thirst" Quotes from Famous Books

... and a reticence un-French. From the Indians he learned to use strange herbs that healed almost magically the ills of man; from the rough out-croppings of civilization he learned to swallow vile whiskey in great gulps, and to thirst always for more. ...

— The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories • B. M. Bower

... parched with Pierian thirst, Away to Parnassus I'm beckoned; List, warriors and dames, while my lay is rehearsed, I sing of the singe of Miss Drury the first, And the birth of Miss Drury ...

— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith

... its way into the whole system, affecting every organ in the body, and appearing on the surface in the shape of small ulcers and boils. One of the most distressing features of the disease was a raging thirst, which could not be appeased by the most copious draughts of water; and the internal heat, which produced this effect, caused also a frightful irritability of the skin, so that the sufferer could not bear the touch ...

— Stories From Thucydides • H. L. Havell

... thirst for gain, is proof against prohibitions and penalties; and the possible sacrifice of a fellow-creature's life, is a secondary consideration among ...

— A Treatise on Adulterations of Food, and Culinary Poisons • Fredrick Accum

... prairies in the Far West of America a man lost his way. He had no water to drink, although both he and his horse were parched with thirst. Not knowing where to find water, he cast the reins on the neck of his horse. By means of that wonderful intelligence which some people wrongly call instinct, the horse found his way to a spring, although it was many miles distant. Thus both man and horse were able ...

— A Horse Book • Mary Tourtel

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