appetite

From Middle English appetit, from Old French apetit (French appétit), from Latin appetitus, from appetere (“to strive after, long for”); ad + petere (“to seek”). See petition, and compare with appetence.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæpɪtaɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈæpəˌtaɪt/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Homophone: apatite (GA pronunciation)
• Hyphenation: ap‧pe‧tite

appetite (countable and uncountable, plural appetites)

1. Desire to eat food or consume drink.
   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of Black Peter:

     And I return with an excellent appetite. There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.

   • 1985, Susan Mullane, “Going for some gusto in the kitchen”, in National Fisherman‎, page 78:

     Though the breweries were forced to shut down, the dry spell did little more than whet the public's appetite for beer: Records show that within the first 24 hours after Congress lifted the ban [Prohibition] in 1933, Americans guzzled 1 million barrels of the stuff.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Biotics: Life as a Biotic Codex entry:

     Biotics possess extraordinary abilities, but they must live with minor inconveniences. The most obvious issue is getting adequate nutrition. Creating biotic mass effects takes such a toll on metabolism that active biotics develop ravenous appetites. The standard Alliance combat ration for a soldier is 3000 calories per day; biotics are given 4500, as well as a canteen of potent energy drink for quick refreshment after hard combat.

2. Any strong desire; an eagerness or longing.
   • 1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC:

     If God had given to eagles an appetite to swim.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 9, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     To gratify the vulgar appetite for the marvellous.

3. The desire for some personal gratification, either of the body or of the mind.

   appetite for reading

   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     The object of appetite is whatsoever sensible good may be wished for; the object of will is that good which reason does lead us to seek.

• craving, longing, desire, appetency, passion

• “appetite”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “appetite”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “appetite”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

appetite

1. inflection of appetire:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

appetite f pl

1. feminine plural of appetito

appetite

1. second-person plural present active imperative of appetō