Word.ws English Dictionary

crave

/kɹeɪv/

crave verb: to desire strongly, so as to satisfy an appetite; to long or yearn for.

Verb

crave (third-person singular simple present craves, present participle craving, simple past and past participle craved)

  1. (ambitransitive) To desire strongly, so as to satisfy an appetite; to long or yearn for.
    • to crave for peace
    • to crave after wealth
  2. (archaic, literary, transitive) To ask for earnestly; to beg or demand, as from a figure of authority.
    • I humbly crave your indulgence to read this letter until the end.
    • My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
      The penalty and forfeit of my bond.c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act IV scene i
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To call for; to require as a course of action.
    • It is the bright day that brings forth the adder and that craves wary walking1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Noun

crave (plural craves)

  1. (Scots law) A formal application to a court to make a particular order.

crave meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

crave in Hindi

to crave, to long, to desire
मचलना macalnā

crave in Tamil

ஏக்கம் கொள், ஏங்கு, ஏக்கம், ஆர்வ விருப்பம், ஆர்வத்துடன் இர, பிச்சையெடு

crave in Urdu

crave
اشتیاق کرنا ištiyāq karnā

crave in Bengali

লালসা করা, তৃষ্ণা করা
More languagesFewer languages
crave in Malayalam
കെഞ്ചുക, കേണപേക്ഷിക്കുക, തീവ്രമായി ആഗ്രഹിക്കുക
crave in Kannada
ಹಂಬಲಿಸು, ಕಕ್ಕುಲಿತೆಗೊಳ್, ಹಾತೊರೆ, ತೀವ್ರವಾಗಿಬಯಸು
crave in Arabic
اِشْتَهَى ištahā
crave in Persian
هوس کردن havas kardan
crave in Myanmar
မက် mak

Examples of crave in a sentence

  • For Sauvignon followers who crave a softer style, this asparagussy contrivance might serve.
  • I crave the softness of human touch, rather than the bone-crushing feel of bare knuckle fighting.
  • As the campaign's poll-tested phrasemaking constantly reminds us, voters crave change above all else.

All 40 example sentences with crave

Forms of crave

Verb
third-person singular presentcraves
present participlecraving
past participlecraved
pastcraved
Noun
pluralcraves

Past tense of crave: craved

Origin of crave

From Middle English craven, from Old English crafian (“to crave, ask, implore, demand, summon”), from Proto-West Germanic *krafōn, from Proto-Germanic *krafjaną (“to demand”). Cognate with Danish kræve (“to demand, require”), Swedish kräva (“to crave, demand”), Icelandic krefja (“to demand”), Norwegian kreve (“to demand”).

Words formed from crave

Words that rhyme with crave

29 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about crave

What does crave mean?
Crave means to desire strongly, so as to satisfy an appetite; to long or yearn for.
What is crave in Hindi?
Crave in Hindi is मचलना (macalnā). See Crave meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is crave?
Crave can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce crave?
Crave is pronounced /kɹeɪv/.
What is the past tense of crave?
The past tense of crave is craved.

Words near crave in the dictionary

  1. Cravaths
  2. cravating
  3. cravats
  4. cravatted
  5. cravatting
  6. crave
  7. craveable
  8. craved
  9. craven
  10. Craven Arms
  11. Craven County

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crave (page history and authors); मचलना (Hindi) (page history and authors); crave (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اشتیاق کرنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); crave (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crave (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crave (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-crave.ogg.

Cite this entry: “crave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.