Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With desire; with earnest wish or longing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb With desire; eagerly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb With desire; eagerly

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Slowly, silently, menacingly, he bent over her, eyes fixed desirously upon her person.

    The Devil's Bedpost 2010

  • Bonnard's "Les Baigneuses Dans un Parc" (1908), a pearly, twinkling oval of frolicking bathers, and Cézanne's "Baigneurs et Baigneuses" (c. 1870-71), in which the shimmering female nudes, magnetically charged, incline desirously toward the reclining male, have enough erotic chutzpah to keep your senses alive long after you have left the building.

    Gallery Gazing in New York 2008

  • Cyprus, which he himselfe had formerly made, in honour of the love he bare to his Mistresse, and what delight he conceived, by being dayly in her presence; whereby he gathered, that it was impossible for him to forget her, and proceeded on so desirously, as he could not live, except he had a sight of her once more, and therefore determined on his returne to Florence.

    The Decameron 2004

  • Yes, it was her body he smelt, a wild and languid smell, the tepid limbs over which his music had flowed desirously and the secret soft linen upon which her flesh distilled odour and a dew.

    A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 2003

  • Slowly, silently, menacingly, he bent over her, eyes fixed desirously upon her person.

    Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 2003

  • Hence, those who would for the present (“populo ut placerent, quas fecere fabulas,”) desirously retain some show of asserting the liberty of eternally distinguishing free grace, do themselves utterly raze, in respect of any fruit or profitable issue, the whole imaginary fabric of general redemption, which they had before erected.

    The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 1616-1683 1967

  • They would very desirously have evangelical joy, peace, and assurance, to countenance them in their evil frames and careless walking.

    Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ 1616-1683 1965

  • And therefore, as laying aside that consideration alone, I could desirously have been excused from the labour of those hours which were spent in its composure; so in the work itself I admitted no one thought, but how the things treated of in it might and ought to be managed unto thy spiritual benefit and advantage.

    A Brief Declaration and Vindication of The Doctrine of the Trinity 1616-1683 1965

  • It must of course continue to exist, but it is displaced in the spiritual hierarchy; and all that moves courageously, desirously, and vitally into the action of life takes on a deeper and subtler intention.

    Lysistrata 446? BC-385? BC Aristophanes

  • Yes, it was her body he smelt, a wild and languid smell, the tepid limbs over which his music had flowed desirously and the secret soft linen upon which her flesh distilled odour and a dew.

    A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce, James, 1882-1941 1922

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