DESIRE TO KNOW

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does desire to know mean? 

• DESIRE TO KNOW (noun)
  The noun DESIRE TO KNOW has 1 sense:

1. curiosity that motivates investigation and study

  Familiarity information: DESIRE TO KNOW used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESIRE TO KNOW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Curiosity that motivates investigation and study

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

desire to know; lust for learning; thirst for knowledge

Hypernyms ("desire to know" is a kind of...):

curiosity; wonder (a state in which you want to learn more about something)

 Context examples 

There are a thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide upon our course of action.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Before I had time to express any desire to know, he had me by the throat with his gorilla grip, and by a faint quiver of the muscles—a hint, as it were—he suggested to me the twist that would surely have broken my neck.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His fortune too!—for at my time of life you know, everybody cares about THAT;—and though I neither know nor desire to know, what it really is, I am sure it must be a good one.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I don't watch his eye in idleness, but because I am morbidly attracted to it, in a dread desire to know what he will do next, and whether it will be my turn to suffer, or somebody else's.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"Just as she likes, of course. The tale will be out next week. Will you call for the money, or shall I send it?" asked Mr. Dashwood, who felt a natural desire to know who his new contributor might be.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

For instance, in the case already mentioned; they never desire to know what claim or title my adversary has to my cow; but whether the said cow were red or black; her horns long or short; whether the field I graze her in be round or square; whether she was milked at home or abroad; what diseases she is subject to, and the like; after which they consult precedents, adjourn the cause from time to time, and in ten, twenty, or thirty years, come to an issue.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Now that we had the clue to his action, each of us could cast back and remember some sinister act upon the part of the half-breed—his constant desire to know our plans, his arrest outside our tent when he was over-hearing them, the furtive looks of hatred which from time to time one or other of us had surprised.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)