hankering

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of hanker

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

   2008 May 23, James Graff, “Lost: Labour's Love for Brown”, in Time

   2 more examples

   "[…] 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? […]"

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 24, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   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.

   1860 January – 1861 April, Anthony Trollope, chapter 4, in Framley Parsonage. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published April 1861, →OCLC

plural hankerings

1. oftenA strong, restless desire, longing, or mental inclination.

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

   1919, Christopher Morley, “Aubrey Takes Lodgings”, in The Haunted Bookshop, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 138

   5 more examples

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

   1840, Washington Irving, The Knight of Malta

   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.

   1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Levitical”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 17

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

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 197

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

   1904, W. W. Jacobs, chapter 2, in Dialstone Lane

   In other words, some species of human ancestor […] not only had a hankering for meat, which scientists had not expected, but used tools to get it.

   2010 August 12, Michael D. Lemonick, “Study: Lucy's Relatives Used Tools to Butcher Meat”, in Time, archived from the original on 13 Sep 2012

   Synonyms: craving