All of them desirable young men. Ezek. xxiii. 12. [ 1913 Webster ]

As things desirable excite
Desire, and objects move the appetite. Blackmore. [ 1913 Webster ]

The desirableness of the Austrian alliance. Froude. [ 1913 Webster ]

Neither shall any man desire thy land. Ex. xxxiv. 24. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye desire your child to live. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To express a wish for; to entreat; to request. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? 2 Kings iv. 28. [ 1913 Webster ]

Desire him to go in; trouble him no more. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To require; to demand; to claim. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A doleful case desires a doleful song. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To miss; to regret. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies. Jer. Taylor.

Syn. -- To long for; hanker after; covet; wish; ask; request; solicit; entreat; beg. -- To Desire, Wish. In desire the feeling is usually more eager than in wish. “I wish you to do this” is a milder form of command than “I desire you to do this, ” though the feeling prompting the injunction may be the same. C. J. Smith. [ 1913 Webster ]

Unspeakable desire to see and know. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An expressed wish; a request; petition. [ 1913 Webster ]

And slowly was my mother brought
To yield consent to my desire. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Anything which is desired; an object of longing. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Desire of all nations shall come. Hag. ii. 7. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Excessive or morbid longing; lust; appetite. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Grief; regret. [ Obs. ] Chapman.

Syn. -- Wish; appetency; craving; inclination; eagerness; aspiration; longing. [ 1913 Webster ]

The desireful troops. Godfrey (1594). [ 1913 Webster ]

The desirefulness of our minds much augmenteth and increaseth our pleasure. Udall. [ 1913 Webster ]

Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him. John xvi. 19. [ 1913 Webster ]

Be not desirous of his dainties. Prov. xxiii. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

The leader was of an ugly look and gigantic stature; he acted like a drawcansir, sparing neither friend nor foe. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was crowned lord and sire. Gower. [ 1913 Webster ]

In the election of a sir so rare. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A title prefixed to the Christian name of a knight or a baronet. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sir Horace Vere, his brother, was the principal in the active part. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An English rendering of the LAtin Dominus, the academical title of a bachelor of arts; -- formerly colloquially, and sometimes contemptuously, applied to the clergy. Nares. [ 1913 Webster ]

Instead of a faithful and painful teacher, they hire a Sir John, which hath better skill in playing at tables, or in keeping of a garden, than in God's word. Latimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A respectful title, used in addressing a man, without being prefixed to his name; -- used especially in speaking to elders or superiors; sometimes, also, used in the way of emphatic formality. “What's that to you, sir?” Sheridan. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Anciently, this title, was often used when a person was addressed as a man holding a certain office, or following a certain business. “Sir man of law.” “Sir parish priest.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sir reverance. See under Reverence, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A district or province; a circar. [ India ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The government; the supreme authority of the state. [ India ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In Turkey, Egypt, etc., a commander in chief, esp. the one commanding the Anglo-Egyptian army. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

Pain and distress, sickness and ire,
And melancholy that angry sire,
Be of her palace senators. Rom. of R. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A tittle of respect formerly used in speaking to elders and superiors, but now only in addressing a sovereign. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A father; the head of a family; the husband. [ 1913 Webster ]

Jankin thet was our sire [ i.e., husband ]. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

And raise his issue, like a loving sire. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A creator; a maker; an author; an originator. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ He ] was the sire of an immortal strain. Shelley. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The male parent of a beast; -- applied especially to horses; as, the horse had a good sire. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Sire is often used in composition; as in grandsire, grandfather; great-grandsire, great-grandfather. [ 1913 Webster ]

Next where the sirens dwell you plow the seas;
Their song is death, and makes destruction please. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An enticing, dangerous woman. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Something which is insidious or deceptive. [ 1913 Webster ]

Consumption is a siren. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A mermaid. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Zool.) Any long, slender amphibian of the genus Siren or family Sirenidae, destitute of hind legs and pelvis, and having permanent external gills as well as lungs. They inhabit the swamps, lagoons, and ditches of the Southern United States. The more common species (Siren lacertina) is dull lead-gray in color, and becames two feet long. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. [ F. sirène, properly, a siren in sense 1. ] (Acoustics) An instrument for producing musical tones and for ascertaining the number of sound waves or vibrations per second which produce a note of a given pitch. The sounds are produced by a perforated rotating disk or disks. A form with two disks operated by steam or highly compressed air is used sounding an alarm to vessels in fog. [ Written also sirene, and syren. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The hind limbs are either rudimentary or wanting, and the front ones are changed to paddles. They have horny plates on the front part of the jaws, and usually flat-crowned molar teeth. The stomach is complex and the intestine long, as in other herbivorous mammals. See Cetacea (b). [ 1913 Webster ]

Here's couple of sirenical rascals shall enchant ye. Marton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. In general, any hot dry wind of cyclonic origin, blowing from arid or heated regions, including the desert wind of Southern California, the harmattan of the west coasts of Africa, the hot winds of Kansas and Texas, the kamsin of Egypt, the leste of the Madeira Islands, and the leveche of Spain. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]