Noun

Any great, strong, powerful emotion, especially romantic love or hate.

We share a passion for books.

* {{quote-news

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Fervor, determination.

An object of passionate or romantic love or strong romantic interest.

It started as a hobby, but now my motorbike collection has become my passion .

sexual intercourse, especially when very emotional

We shared a night of passion .

The suffering of Jesus leading up to and during his crucifixion.

A play, musical composition or display meant to commemorate the suffering of Jesus.

(obsolete) Suffering or enduring of imposed or inflicted pain; any suffering or distress.

a cardiac passion

* Wyclif Bible (Rom. viii. 18)

the passions of this time

(obsolete) The state of being acted upon; subjection to an external agent or influence; a passive condition; opposed to action .

* John Locke

A body at rest affords us no idea of any active power to move, and, when set is motion, it is rather a passion than an action in it.

(obsolete) Capacity of being affected by external agents; susceptibility of impressions from external agents.

* Francis Bacon

mouldable and not mouldable, scissible and not scissible, and many other passions of matter

(obsolete) An innate quality, property, or attribute of a thing.

to obtain the knowledge of some passion of the circle. (rfex)

(obsolete) Disorder of the mind; madness.

(Shakespeare)

Noun

(en noun)

(anatomy, immunology) In vertebrates, including humans, a ductless vascular gland, located in the left upper abdomen near the stomach, which destroys old red blood cells, removes debris from the bloodstream, acts as a reservoir of blood, and produces lymphocytes.

A bad mood; spitefulness.

* Alexander Pope

In noble minds some dregs remain, / Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain.

(obsolete, rare) A sudden motion or action; a fit; a freak; a whim.

* Shakespeare

A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways.

(obsolete) Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.

* Alexander Pope

Bodies changed to various forms by spleen .

* Wordsworth

There is a luxury in self-dispraise: / And inward self-disparagement affords / To meditative spleen a grateful feast.

A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment.

* Shakespeare

Thy silly thought enforces my spleen .