hankering

hankering

1. present participle and gerund of hanker
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 24, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     " […] You don't mean," Mr. Osborne continued, gathering wrath and astonishment as the thought now first came upon him; "you don't mean that he's such a d—— fool as to be still hankering after that swindling old bankrupt's daughter? […] "

   • 1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, chapter 4, in Framley Parsonage. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1861, →OCLC:

     One may say that hankering after naughty things is the very essence of the evil into which we have been precipitated by Adam's fall.

   • 2008 May 23, James Graff, “Lost: Labour's Love for Brown”, in Time:

     [T]here is a clear sense that Britain is hankering for a change at the top.

hankering (plural hankerings)

1. (often followed by for or after) A strong, restless desire, longing, or mental inclination.

   Synonym: craving

   • 1840, Washington Irving, The Knight of Malta:

     I found that he had dipped a little in chimerical studies and had a hankering after astrology and alchymy.

   • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter 1, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Mike says he even likes to talk to him and run after him, but he has a hankering that Moore should be made an example of.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 197:

     But there was one yet - the biggest, the most blank, so to speak - that I had a hankering after.

   • 1904, W. W. Jacobs, chapter 2, in Dialstone Lane:

     "Some people are fond of a stay-at-home life, but I always had a hankering after adventures."

   • 1919, Christopher Morley, chapter VII, in The Haunted Bookshop‎, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 138:

     “It looks wrong to me. But I have a hankering to work the thing out on my own. […] ”

   • 2010 August 12, Michael D. Lemonick, “Study: Lucy's Relatives Used Tools to Butcher Meat”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 2012-09-13:

     In other words, some species of human ancestor […] not only had a hankering for meat, which scientists had not expected, but used tools to get it.

• harkening