appetite

Definition

A desire to eat food or consume drinks.

Etymology

From Middle English appetit, from Old French apetit (French appétit), from Latin appetitus, from appetere (“to strive after, long for”); ad + petere (“to seek”). See petition, and compare with appetence.

Example Sentences

• "And I return with an excellent appetite. There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast."
• "The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it."
• "Though the breweries were forced to shut down, the dry spell did little more than whet the public's appetite for beer: Records show that within the first 24 hours after Congress lifted the ban Prohibition] in 1933, Americans guzzled 1 million barrels of the stuff."