primitive urge
Deep animal drive
A primitive urge is a basic, instinctive drive that seems to arise from deep within human nature rather than from reason or socialization.
The phrase suggests something primal and difficult to suppress—hunger, aggression, sexual desire, the fight-or-flight response: He felt a primitive urge to protect his family.
The modifier primitive implies the urge predates civilization or operates beneath conscious thought.
- instinctInnate behavioral tendency
- animal instinctInnate behavioral drive
- hungerNeed for nourishment
- desireIntense wanting
- cravingPowerful urge to have
lust · raw · raw emotion · visceral · gut feeling · survival · fight or flight · animalistic · impulse · drive · need · carnal · fierce · gut · basic · wild · feral · appetite