desiderate

English

Etymology

From Latin, from the participle stem of the verb dēsīderāre (“to desire”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɪdəɹeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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Verb

desiderate (third-person singular simple present desiderates, present participle desiderating, simple past and past participle desiderated)

1. (transitive) To miss; to feel the absence of; to long for.
   • 1879, William Hurrell Mallock, Is Life Worth Living?:

     Between our human nature and the nature they desiderate there is a deep and fordless river, over which they can throw no bridge, and all their talk supposes that we shall be able to fly or wade across it […]

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:

     it put him in thought of that missing link of creation’s chain desiderated by the late ingenious Mr Darwin.

Translations

To long for, to feel the absence of

Bulgarian: желая (bg) (želaja), чувствам липсата на (čuvstvam lipsata na) Maori: mānakonako

Adjective

desiderate (comparative more desiderate, superlative most desiderate)

1. desired, wished or longed for
   • 1916, Lord Dunsany, “A Tale of London”, in Tales of Wonder:

     O Friend of God, know then that London is the desiderate town even of all Earth's cities.