Whim vs Desire - What's the difference?
whim | desire |
A fanciful impulse, or whimsical idea
* Churchill
(mining) A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes
To want; to wish for earnestly.
* Bible, Exodus xxxiv. 24
* Tennyson
To put a request to (someone); to entreat.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XIII:
*
, title=The Mirror and the Lamp
, chapter=2 To want emotionally or sexually.
To express a wish for; to entreat; to request.
* Bible, 2 Kings iv. 28
* Shakespeare
To require; to demand; to claim.
* Spenser
To miss; to regret.
* Jeremy Taylor
(countable) Someone or something wished for.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (uncountable) Strong attraction, particularly romantic or sexual.
(uncountable) Motivation.
(uncountable) The feeling of desire.
As nouns the difference between whim and desire
is that whim is a fanciful impulse, or whimsical idea while desire is someone or something wished for.As a verb desire is
to want; to wish for earnestly.whim
English
(wikipedia whim)Etymology 1
Apocopal derivation of "whim-wham."Noun
(en noun)- Let every man enjoy his whim .
Synonyms
* (fancy) lark, especially in phrase on a whimDerived terms
* on a whim * whim gin * whim shaft * whimsicalExternal links
*Picture of a horse-powered whim used to wind the cables on to work the mine between the depth of 50 feet to 500 feet - photo taken at Gympie, Queensland, Australia
Etymology 2
Compare whimbrel.desire
English
Verb
(desir)- Neither shall any man desire thy land.
- Ye desire your child to live.
- And when they founde no cause of deeth in hym, yet desired they Pilate to kyll him.
citation, passage=That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired .}}
- Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord?
- Desire him to go in; trouble him no more.
- A doleful case desires a doleful song.
- She shall be pleasant while she lives, and desired when she dies.
Noun
(en-noun)Fantasy of navigation, passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}