DESIRABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does desirable mean? 

• DESIRABLE (adjective)
  The adjective DESIRABLE has 2 senses:

1. worth having or seeking or achieving

2. worthy of being chosen especially as a spouse

  Familiarity information: DESIRABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESIRABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Worth having or seeking or achieving

Context example:

a desirable outcome

Similar:

coveted; in demand; sought-after; sought after (greatly desired)

delectable; sexually attractive (capable of arousing sexual desire)

enviable (causing envy)

plummy (very desirable)

preferable; preferred (more desirable than another)

Also:

lovable; loveable (having characteristics that attract love or affection)

wanted (desired or wished for or sought)

Antonym:

undesirable (not wanted)

Derivation:

desirability; desirableness (the quality of being worthy of desiring)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Worthy of being chosen especially as a spouse

Synonyms:

desirable; suitable; worthy

Context example:

the parents found the girl suitable for their son

Similar:

eligible (qualified for or allowed or worthy of being chosen)

Derivation:

desirability; desirableness (attractiveness to the opposite sex)

 Context examples 

I found that the street was not as desirable a one as I could have wished it to be, for the sake of Traddles.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And who but Mr. Knightley could know and bear with Mr. Woodhouse, so as to make such an arrangement desirable!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He had been considering her as a particularly welcome addition at the Parsonage, as a desirable companion to an aunt who had no children of her own; but he found himself wholly mistaken.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If they left him alone, he left them alone—a state of affairs that they found, after a few encounters, to be pre-eminently desirable.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Besides, a taste for flowers is always desirable in your sex, as a means of getting you out of doors, and tempting you to more frequent exercise than you would otherwise take.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Mr Shepherd was eloquent on the subject; pointing out all the circumstances of the Admiral's family, which made him peculiarly desirable as a tenant.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Darcy, you must allow me to present this young lady to you as a very desirable partner.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

To be tied down to the regular payment of such a sum, on every rent day, is by no means desirable: it takes away one's independence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Informed by genetic analysis, they replaced undesirable alleles in modern tomato varieties with desirable alleles.

(Scientists develop genetic path to tastier tomatoes, NSF)

Thus, one would be a better agent for a lozenge when slow dissolution in the mouth is desirable whereas another would provide more rapid disintegration for other purposes.

(Binder Excipient, NCI Thesaurus)