to lust after
5
6.8
- phrasal verb
- /lʌst ˈæftər/
- NSFW
:
desear
- Well, then I lust after you.
- man who lusts after
- lusting after a woman
So these boys, these men grow up thinking getting an erection is wrong, masturbating is wrong, lusting after a woman is wrong.
- So these boys, these men grow up thinking getting an erection is wrong, masturbating is wrong, lusting after a woman is wrong.
- And he says, you know, an example of this is Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount seeing adultery in the very act of looking at a woman to lust after her.
- Listen, they're not if they're lusting after those women, it's not the makeup, right?
Examples
-
He lusts after his red-haired masseuse.
-
And I found myself lusting after the football team more than the cheerleaders.
-
Have I told you how much I lust after your sister?
-
Oh, talk to me when you stop lusting after Michael.
-
I thought the women loved her and the men lusted after her.
Fiction book (1994) -
You lay around lusting after her, but you were too scared to do anything about it.
Fiction book (1993) -
You've been lusting after her.
-
He's lusting after your daughter.
-
You like me, you lust after me, you go about with me because I've got a title, that's all.
-
Have I told you how much I lust after your sister?
Synonyms
103
3.8
To want something very much
30
6.3
To want something very strongly, often something forbidden
8
5.2
To have a strong wish for something
To feel a strong sexual interest in someone and act in an unwanted way toward them
To want someone or something very much
Antonyms
How Lustful
Surface Forms
Morphology
lust + after
The phrase is transparently built from 'lust' (intense desire) plus the prepositional marker 'after' indicating the target, so 'lust after X' straightforwardly means to desire X strongly. Although 'lust' often carries sexual connotations, its figurative extension to material or abstract targets is regular in English, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
Lust after may come from the old sense of lust meaning a very strong want and after meaning 'toward'. Picture someone staring with hungry eyes or reaching toward a person they desire. That's why it means 'to have a strong sexual desire for someone'.