Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Thirst |
ThirstNoun1. A physiological need to drink. 2. Strong desire for something (not food or drink): "a thirst for knowledge"; "hunger for affection". Verb1. Feel the need to drink. 2. Have a craving, appetite, or great desire for. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "thirst" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
19th Century Satire | A sensation immediately following a short session at the free lunch stand. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of being thirsty, shows that you are aspiring to things beyond your present reach; but if your thirst is quenched with pleasing drinks, you will obtain your wishes. To see others thirsty and drinking to slake it, you will enjoy many favors at the hands of wealthy people. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: ThirstSynonyms: crave (v), hunger (v), lust (v), starve (v). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: thirsting (medicine). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Curiosity | Noun: interest, thirst for knowledge, thirst for truth; curiosity, curiousness; inquiring mind; inquisitiveness. |
Desire | Be hungry; play a good knife and fork; hunger after, thirst after, crave after, lust after, itch after, hanker after, run mad after; raven for, die for; burn to. |
Appe appetition, appetence, appetency; sharp appetite, keenness, hunger, stomach, twist; thirst, thirstiness; drouth, mouthwatering; itch, itching; prurience, cacoethes, cupidity, lust, concupiscence. | |
Adjective: desirous; desiring; Verb: inclined; (willing); partial to; fain, wishful, optative; anxious, wistful, curious; at a loss for, sedulous, solicitous. craving, hungry, sharp-set, peckish, ravening, with an empty stomach, esurient, lickerish, thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, pinched with hunger, famished, dry, drouthy; hungry as a hunter, hungry as a hawk, hungry as a horse, hungry as a church mouse, hungry as a bear. | |
Intemperance | Revel; rake, live hard, run riot, sow one's wild oats; slake one's thirst; swill; pamper. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | As Melchiah and Zephon fell before my blade, I felt the Reaver's blood thirst as keenly as I ever had when I was still a vampire (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver II; writing credit: Amy Hennig) Quench the killer's thirst. (The Beast of Yucca Flats; writing credit: Coleman Francis) Two armies, both dying of thirst, fighting over an empty well (Sahara; writing credit: David Phillips) One shot kills thirst; two, worms; three, death (Coup de torchon; writing credit: Jean Aurenche; Bertrand Tavernier) I'm gonna put my foot so far up your ass, the water on my knee will quench your thirst. (Major Payne; writing credit: Joe Connelly; Bob Mosher) | |
Lyrics | In my pursuit of God, I thirst for holiness (Between You And Me; performing artist: DC Talk) | |
Clever | Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Blood Thirst (1971) See America Thirst (1930) Thirst (1917) The Thirst for Gold (1913) Thirst for Revenge (2002) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Pant; exhaustion; thirst; hot; canine; exhausted; tired; . |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Froude | Thirst of power and of riches now bear sway, the passion and infirmity of age. |
Jean Jacques Rousseau | The thirst after happiness is never extinguished in the heart of man. |
Nathaniel Hawthorne | She poured out the liquid music of her voice to quench the thirst of her spirit. |
Thomas Jefferson | Pride costs more than hunger, thirst and cold. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Author | Date | Quotation |
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1963 | Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. (Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1923) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | (r)Monsieur to a convict, is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Thirst set in instantly |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | In addition, the vomiting may cause drooling and excessive thirst. (references) | |
Symptoms include fatigue, frequent urination, increased thirst, and possible sudden confusion. (references) | ||
If you drink juice frequently to quench your thirst during the day, a high blood sugar level may result. (references) | ||
Business | Beer is an overwhelming favorite and great thirst quencher in Australia. (references) | |
Economic History | Slovak Rep | There are local producers of consumer electronics, such as radios, VCRs, audio-visual equipment and electronic components, and their thirst for components should increase as the economy gets moving again. (references) |
Azerbaijan | The construction market in Azerbaijan has rapidly evolved from a state controlled monolith to one marked by upstart architectural, design and building firms with a thirst for the latest Western technologies and building materials. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | SOUL, n. A spiritual entity concerning which there hath been brave disputation. Plato held that those souls which in a previous state of existence (antedating Athens) had obtained the clearest glimpses of eternal truth entered into the bodies of persons who became philosophers. Plato himself was a philosopher. The souls that had least contemplated divine truth animated the bodies of usurpers and despots. Dionysius I, who had threatened to decapitate the broad- browed philosopher, was a usurper and a despot. Plato, doubtless, was not the first to construct a system of philosophy that could be quoted against his enemies; certainly he was not the last. "Concerning the nature of the soul," saith the renowned author of Diversiones Sanctorum, "there hath been hardly more argument than that of its place in the body. Mine own belief is that the soul hath her seat in the abdomen -- in which faith we may discern and interpret a truth hitherto unintelligible, namely that the glutton is of all men most devout. He is said in the Scripture to 'make a god of his belly' -- why, then, should he not be pious, having ever his Deity with him to freshen his faith? Who so well as he can know the might and majesty that he shrines? Truly and soberly, the soul and the stomach are one Divine Entity; and such was the belief of Promasius, who nevertheless erred in denying it immortality. He had observed that its visible and material substance failed and decayed with the rest of the body after death, but of its immaterial essence he knew nothing. This is what we call the Appetite, and it survives the wreck and reek of mortality, to be rewarded or punished in another world, according to what it hath demanded in the flesh. The Appetite whose coarse clamoring was for the unwholesome viands of the general market and the public refectory shall be cast into eternal famine, whilst that which firmly through civilly insisted on ortolans, caviare, terrapin, anchovies, pates de foie gras and all such Christian comestibles shall flesh its spiritual tooth in the souls of them forever and ever, and wreak its divine thirst upon the immortal parts of the rarest and richest wines ever quaffed here below. Such is my religious faith, though I grieve to confess that neither His Holiness the Pope nor His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (whom I equally and profoundly revere) will assent to its dissemination." |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
James Madison | 1809-1817 | In his pride of maritime dominion and in his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with peculiar animosity at the progress of our navigation and of our manufactures. |
Harry S. Truman | 1945-1953 | Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Thirst" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.77% of the time. "Thirst" is used about 279 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.77% | 270 | 17,892 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 2.15% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 0.72% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.36% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 279 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "thirst": be parched with thirst ♦ burning thirst ♦ die of thirst ♦ quench one's thirst ♦ quench thirst ♦ raging thirst ♦ sensation of thirst ♦ slake one's thirst ♦ thirst after ♦ thirst after knowledge ♦ thirst for ♦ thirst for blood ♦ thirst for glory ♦ thirst for knowledge ♦ thirst for power ♦ thirst for revenge ♦ thirst of ♦ thirst quenching ♦ with a thirst for power. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "thirst": thirst-driven, thirst-quencher, thirst-quenchers, thirst-quenching, thirst-rousing, thirst-satisfying. | |
Ending with "thirst": a-thirst. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
thirst | 54 | dog excessive thirst | 2 |
thirst excessive | 22 | symptom thirst | 2 |
obey thirst | 7 | cause thirst | 2 |
after hunger righteousness thirst | 5 | cat excessive in thirst | 2 |
hunger righteousness thirst | 5 | by taught thirst water | 2 |
pregnancy thirst | 4 | aid thirst | 2 |
thirst quencher | 4 | blood thirst | 2 |
extreme thirst | 4 | constant thirst | 2 |
increased thirst | 3 | diabetes thirst | 2 |
obey sprite thirst | 3 | safety thirst | 2 |
dog excessive in thirst | 3 | i thirst | 2 |
justice thirst | 3 | heineken thirst | 2 |
dry mouth thirst | 2 | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "thirst"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | jam i etur (die, hanker, lust, yearn), gllënjkë (craving, drachm, draft, drain, dram, draught, drink, drop, gulp, longing, mouthful, nip, peg, pull, sip, smack, sup, swallow, swig, traction), etje (anxiety, avidity, cupidity, desire, drought, eagerness, hankering, hunger, voracity), dëshirë e fortë (crush, unction, urge). (various references) | |
Arabic | عطش (thirstiness), ظمأ (drought, parch). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | жажда (concupiscence, eagerness, hunger, yearning, yen), жадувам (ache, desire, hanker, hunger, pant, pine, weary, yearn, yen), жаден съм. (various references) | |
Chinese | 干渴, 口渴 . (various references) | |
Czech | touha (ambition, aspiration, craving, desire, hunger, longing, urge, wish, yearning, yen), žízeò. (various references) | |
Danish | tørst. (various references) | |
Dutch | dorst. (various references) | |
Esperanto | soifo. (various references) | |
Farsi | تشنه بودن , تشنگی , عطش , ارزومندی , ارزومندبودن , اشتیاق داشتن (Aspire, Crave, Hanker, Hunger, Yearn), اشتیاق (Anxiety, Appetite, Avidity, Enthusiasm, Heat, Hunger, Solicitude). (various references) | |
Finnish | janota, jano, himo (addiction to drink, craving, desire, greed, lust). (various references) | |
French | soif (thirstiness). (various references) | |
German | Durst. (various references) | |
Greek | διψώ (be thirsty), δίψα (craving, thirstiness). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לערו' (languish, long for, pine, yearn), לחוש צמאון, לצמוא (be thirsty), תשוק" (craving, desire, itch, lust, passion, rage, urge, yen), צמאון (arid land, thirstiness), צמא (desirous, parched, thirstiness). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szomjúság, vágy (appetite, cupidity, desire, eagerness, longing, stomach, wish). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kehausan, dahaga (opposition, subordination), berdahaga. (various references) | |
Irish | tart. (various references) | |
Italian | sete (drought). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 渇き , 渇き , 渇 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | かつ (and, break, crack, cut, dilute, divide, halve, rip, separate, smash, split, to gain victory, to win, yet), かわき (drying, dryness). (various references) | |
Korean | 갈증. (various references) | |
Lombard | sed. (various references) | |
Manx | taart (defeat, rout), droogh. (various references) | |
Norwegian | tørst. (various references) | |
Papiamen | set, sedu, sede. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | irstthay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sede (centre, focus, head office, headquarters, place). (various references) | |
Romanian | sete (covetousness, craving, itch, itching, lust). (various references) | |
Russian | жажда (hunger for). (various references) | |
Scottish | tart (drought), padhadh, ìotadh. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | žudnja (avidity, craving, eagerness, hanker, hankering, hunger, longing, lust, yen), žudeti (ache, aspire, covet, crave, hanker, hunger, long for, lust, yearn), žeđ. (various references) | |
Spanish | sed (craving, thirstiness). (various references) | |
Sranan | dreywatra. (various references) | |
Swedish | törst (longing), törsta (hunger). (various references) | |
Turkish | susuzluk (lack of water, thirstiness). (various references) | |
Turkmen | teюnelik. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | спрага (drought), туга (yearn, yearning), відчувати спрагу (be thirsty), жадати (ache for, covet, crave, crave for, hunger, pine, whim, will, wish for), пустеля (desert, sands, solitudes, waste, wild, wilderness). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự khao khát (avidity, hankering, hunger). (various references) | |
Welsh | syched. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | enmen. (various references) |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | dipsa. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | siti, sitim, sitis, situm. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | John Chapter 4, Verse 13 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Apekriqh o ihsouV kai eipen auth paV o pinwn ek tou udatoV toutou diyhsei palin |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Respondit Iesus et dixit ei omnis qui bibit ex aqua hac sitiet iterum qui autem biberit ex aqua quam ego dabo ei non sitiet in aeternum |
| Old English | 990 | West Saxon | Ða answerede se hælend. & cwæð tohire. Ælc þare þerst eft þe of þisse wæteredrinkeð. |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | Jhesus answerde, and seide to hir, Eche man that drynkith of this watir, schal thirste efte soone; but he that drynkith of the watir that Y schal yyue hym, schal not thirste with outen ende; but the watir that Y schal yyue hym, |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | Iesus answered and sayde vnto hir: whosoever drinketh of this water shall thurst agayne. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again: |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | Jesus said to her, Everyone who takes this water will be in need of it again: |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | John Chapter 4, Verse 13 |
| Cebuano | Si Jesus miingon kaniya, "Ang tanan nga magainom niining tubiga pagauhawon pag-usab, |
| Chinese | 耶 穌 回 " 說 、 凡 喝 這 水 的 、 還 要 再 渴 ． |
| Croatian | Odgovori joj Isus: "Tko god pije ove vode, opet æe ožednjeti. |
| Danish | Jesus svarede og sagde til hende: "Hver den, som drikker af dette Vand, skal tørste igen. |
| Dutch | Jezus antwoordde, en zeide tot haar: Een ieder, die van dit water drinkt, zal wederom dorsten; |
| Finnish | Jeesus vastasi ja sanoi hänelle: "Jokainen, joka juo tätä vettä, janoaa jälleen, |
| French | Jésus lui répondit: Quiconque boit de cette eau aura encore soif; |
| German | Jesus antwortete und sprach zu ihr: Wer von diesem Wasser trinkt, den wir wieder dürsten; |
| Hungarian | Felele Jézus és monda néki: Mindaz, a ki ebbõl a vízbõl iszik, ismét megszomjúhozik: |
| Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari | "Orang yang minum air ini akan haus lagi," kata Yesus, |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | Maka jawab Yesus serta berkata kepadanya, "Barangsiapa yang minum air ini, ia akan dahaga pula; |
| Maori | Ka whakahoki a Ihu, ka mea ki a ia, E mate ano i te wai te tangata e inu ana i tenei wai: |
| Norwegian | Jesus svarte og sa til henne: Enhver som drikker av dette vann, skal tørste igjen; |
| Portuguese | Replicou-lhe Jesus: Todo o que beber desta água tornará a ter sede; |
| Rumanian | Isus i -a rqspuns: ,,Oricui bea din apa aceasta, ki va fi iarqw sete. |
| Shuar | Jesussha Tímiayi "Ashí shuar ju entsan umarka ataksha kitiamtiatui. |
| Swahili | Yesu akamjibu, "Kila anayekunywa maji haya ataona kiu tena. |
| Swedish | Jesus svarade och sade till henne: "Var och en som dricker av detta vatten, han bliver törstig igen; |
| Uma | Na'uli' Yesus: "Hawe'ea tauna to nginu ue ngkai buwu toi, ngkamara nculii' -ra-pidi mpai'. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "thirst": thirsted, thirster, thirsters, thirstier, thirstiest, thirstily, thirstiness, thirstinesses, thirsting, thirsts, thirsty. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "thirst": athirst. (additional references) | |
Words containing "thirst": bloodthirstily, bloodthirstiness, bloodthirstinesses, bloodthirsty. (additional references) | |
| |
"Thirst" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: chirst, hirst, Hyrst, thart, thiest, thist, thoist, thrit, thurs, thyst, Tritrust. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "thirst" (pronounced ther"st) |
| 3 | -er" s t | burst, coerced, conversed, cursed, immersed, disbursed, dispersed, durst, emersed, first, headfirst, Hurst, interspersed, nursed, pursed, rehearsed, reimbursed, reversed, submersed, traversed, unrehearsed, versed, worst, Wurst. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "h-i-r-s-t-t" | |
-1 letter: shirt. | |
-2 letters: hist, hits, shri, sith, stir, thir, this. | |
-3 letters: his, hit, its, sir, sit, sri, tis. | |
-4 letters: hi, is, it, sh, si, ti. | |
| Words containing the letters "h-i-r-s-t-t" | |
+1 letter: athirst, hitters, rattish, ruttish, tartish, thirsts, thirsty, thrifts, tithers. | |
+2 letters: brattish, chartist, chitters, mistruth, restitch, rightest, rightist, stitcher, straight, theorist, thirsted, thirster, thirties, thorites, tristich, turbiths, whitters. | |
+3 letters: arthritis, bitterish, brightest, chartists, chertiest, earthiest, fortieths, frothiest, hatterias, heartiest, hermetist, hesitater, mistruths, orthotics, orthotist, poortiths, prettyish, rhythmist, rightists, rightmost, ruttishly, shirtiest, shirttail, shortlist, starlight, stitchers, stitchery, straights, tephrites, theatrics, theorists, therapist, thermites, theurgist, thirsters, thirstier, thirstily, thirsting, thirteens, thirtyish, thistlier, thorniest, thrusting, thyristor, torchiest, trashiest, trichites, triptychs, tristichs, tritheism, tritheist, trithings, tutorship, twitchers, whittlers, whittrets, worthiest, wrathiest, zitherist. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Historic 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Bible Trace 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
