hankering

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of hanker

   “"[…] You don't mean," Mr. Osborne continued, gathering wrath and astonishment as the thought now first came upon him; "you don't mean that he's such a d—— fool as to be still hankering after that swindling old bankrupt's daughter? […]"”

   “One may say that hankering after naughty things is the very essence of the evil into which we have been precipitated by Adam's fall.”

   “[T]here is a clear sense that Britain is hankering for a change at the top.”

noun

1. (often)A strong, restless desire, longing, or mental inclination.

   “I found that he had dipped a little in chimerical studies and had a hankering after astrology and alchymy.”

   “Mr. Hall thinks he has no personal hatred of Moore; he says he even likes to talk to him, and run after him, but he has a hankering that he should be made an example of.”

   “But there was one yet - the biggest, the most blank, so to speak - that I had a hankering after.”

   “"Some people are fond of a stay-at-home life, but I always had a hankering after adventures."”

   ““It looks wrong to me. But I have a hankering to work the thing out on my own. […]””