From Middle English thirst, thurst, from Old English þurst, from Proto-West Germanic *þurstu, from Proto-Germanic *þurstuz, from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”).

Germanic cognates include Old High German thurst, Middle High German durst, German Durst, Old Saxon thurst, Old Dutch thursti, Middle Dutch dorst, dorste, Dutch dorst, Old Norse þorsti (Swedish törst, Icelandic þorsti, Danish tørst, Norwegian tørst). Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek τέρσομαι (térsomai), Albanian djersë (“sweat”), Sanskrit तृष्णा (tṛṣṇā, “desire; thirst”), Sanskrit तृष्यति (tṛ́ṣyati), Latin terra, Latin torridus.

• enPR: thûrst
• (UK) IPA^(key): /θɜːst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /θɝst/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)st

thirst (countable and uncountable, plural thirsts)

1. A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear, excitement, etc.) which stops the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane.

   We developed a great thirst during our hike.

   He had quite a thirst on and so headed to his favourite Dublin pub.

2. The condition producing the sensation of thirst.

   If you go out in the desert for long without water, the thirst can drive you mad.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

     "We haven't one chance for life in a hundred thousand if we don't find food and water upon Caprona. This water coming out of the cliff is not salt; but neither is it fit to drink, though each of us has drunk. It is fair to assume that inland the river is fed by pure streams, that there are fruits and herbs and game. Shall we lie out here and die of thirst and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few hundred yards away? We have the means for navigating a subterranean river. Are we too cowardly to utilize this means?"

3. (figuratively) A want and eager desire (for something); a craving or longing.

   She had a real thirst for news and that greatly helped her career.

4. (figuratively) Sexual lust.

   He had a thirst for her and she had the same for him.

• (figuratively): craving, longing

• hunger

thirst (third-person singular simple present thirsts, present participle thirsting, simple past and past participle thirsted)

1. (intransitive) To be thirsty.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 17:3:

     The people thirsted there for water.

2. (intransitive, usually followed by "for") To desire vehemently.

   I thirst for knowledge and education will sate me.

   to be thirsted for one's blood

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 42:2:

     My soul thirsteth for […] the living God.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:6:

     Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.

• “thirst”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “thirst”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• T-shirt, t-shirt, thrist

• thrust, thurst, þirst, þrust, þyrst
• ðrist, þurst (Early Middle English); þirrst, þrisst (Ormulum)
• threste, threyst, thrist, thryst (especially East Anglia, Northern); þrast, þrest (East Saxon); thryste (Catholicon Anglicum)
• þorst, thorst (Kent); derst, ferst, first, furst, furste, þerst, þerste (Southern, West Midland)

Inherited from Old English þurst (with vocalism modified after þyrstan), from Proto-West Germanic *þurstu, from Proto-Germanic *þurstuz.

Southern and West Midland forms with /f/ either spread to this word from or reflect an apheretic form of afurst, a local variant of athirst, which originated from assimilation of /θ/ to the preceding /f/ in earlier ofþurst. They may have been reinforced by the parallel of afyngred, variant of ofhungred (where a similar assimilatory process occurred).

• IPA^(key): /θirst/, /θurst/, /θrust/
• IPA^(key): /θrist/, /θrɛst/ (East Anglia, East Saxon, Northern), /θrast/ (East Saxon)
• IPA^(key): /furst/ (West Midland, Southern)

thirst (uncountable)

1. Thirst; a need of or desire for hydration.
2. A lack of hydration; parchedness, drought.
3. A strong desire or demand.

• English: thirst
• Middle Scots: thrist
  • Scots: thrist
  • Shetland: trist

• “thirst, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “thirst, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.