libido

Definitions

1. The sexual urge or instinct; the sex drive; Freud's term for the sexual energy of the id.
SYNONYMS AND QUASI-SYNONYMS: carnal desire; concupiscence; craving; desire; eroticism; horniness; itch; lasciviousness; lecherousness; lechery; libidinousness; lickerishness; lust; lustfulness; passion; prurience; salaciousness; sexual desire. See horny for synonyms.

QUOTES:

(1) Barbara Stern (Caroline Aaron) to Clifford Stern (Woody Allen) in Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989): ' Once the sex goes it all goes.'

(2) Barmaid Sal (Lynnie Godfrey) to her friend V.I. Warshawski (Kathleen Turner) who has Murray troubles in V.I. Warshawski (1991): 'The man is a slut. We know this. Have libido, will travel.'

(3) Frank Slade (Al Pacino) to Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell) in Scent of a Woman (1993): ' The day we stop looking, Charlie, is the day we die.'

2. In psychoanalytic theory, the psychic and emotional energy derived from primitive or instinctual biological drive. A freudian term.

ETYMOLOGY: From the New Latin libidin-, libido; desire, lust; and from libere, to please.

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(Noun) Sex drive.

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(Noun) sexual energy