carnal desire
Yearning for flesh
Carnal desire is sexual appetite or lust—the physical craving for intimate contact with another person.
The word carnal emphasizes the bodily, fleshly nature of the wanting, as opposed to romantic or spiritual longing: He struggled to reconcile his carnal desires with his religious vows.
The phrase appears most often in moral, religious, or literary contexts.
- lustIntense carnal appetite
- arousalStirring to heightened state
- sexual tensionUnresolved erotic anticipation
- urgeStrong inner drive
- primal urgeFundamental instinctual drive
libido · raw attraction · concupiscent · lasciviousness · passion · body heat · heat · craving · pheromones · flesh · forbidden fruit · primal · animal instinct · lechery · sensuality · fantasy · bedroom eyes · hypersexuality
- desireyearn, yearning, crave, craving, lust
- lustlust, lustfulness, concupiscence, libido, lechery
- Literary Eroticaerotica, erotic fiction, romance novels, adult romance, steamy romance
- sexual sinsfornication, adultery, lust, lechery, lewdness
- French eroticaMarquis de Sade, Anais Nin, erotic fiction, erotic poetry, boudoir
- indulgenceindulgence, indulge, indulgent, self-indulgent, overindulgence
carnal desireplatonic love
Emotional bond sans desire
spiritual love · agape · divine love · emotional intimacy · brotherly love
carnal desirereligious devotion
Sincere worship commitment
transcendence · mystical union · piety · holiness · otherworldliness
carnal desirecelibacy
Abstaining from intimate relations
chastity · abstinence · self-denial · asceticism · asexuality