Definition of "wanderlust"
wanderlust
noun
countable and uncountable, plural wanderlusts
A strong impulse or longing to travel.
Quotations
Very often we made detours from the main caravan, rejoining it at a given spot, and this spirit of "wanderlust" brought us into a nice quandary one fine day.
1908, Agnes Herbert, “Death of ‘The Baron’”, in Two Dianas in Somaliland: The Record of a Shooting Trip, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head; New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, page 119
For the long trail stretched before us, for we heard the call, / Left the hearthstone and the homeland, felt the rover's thrall; / Wandered to the far horizon, sought the joy of life— / Now the wanderlust is waning, heimweh now is rife.
1908 December 12, Harry Davids, Tom Springer, “Christmas Sorrows”, in Alfred Holman, editor, The Argonaut, volume LXIII, number 1655, San Francisco, Calif.: Argonaut Publishing Company, page 397, column 1
The Wanderlust has lured me to the seven lonely seas, / Has dumped me on the tailing-piles of dearth; / The Wanderlust has haled me from the morris chairs of ease, / Has hurled me to the ends of all the earth.
1912, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Wanderlust”, in Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, stanza 1, page 123
Apart from a visit to Paris in 1825 he [Adelbert von Chamisso] enjoyed the peace of his home and of his study at Berlin until the hour of his death without any further visitations of Wanderlust.
1932, August C[arl] Mahr, “Introduction”, in The Visit of the “Rurik” to San Francisco in 1816 (Stanford University Publications, University Series ; History, Economics, and Political Science; volume II, number 2), Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, pages 17–18
The shallow waters immediately adjacent to California's 1200 miles of coastline offer a wide variety of habitats where at least 250 kinds of fishes live out all or some of their lives. [...] The eggs and larvae of some may drift seaward and lead a pelagic existence, but once their wanderlust is satisfied, the juveniles return to nearshore areas where they take up life as their parents did before them.
1975, John E. Fitch, Robert J. Lavenberg, “Introduction”, in Arthur C. Smith, editor, Tidepool and Nearshore Fishes of California (California Natural History Guides; 38), Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif., London: University of California Press, page 1
His death brings to light the thwarted ambitions, bridled emotions, unfulfilled loves, or unsatisfied wanderlusts of his surviving friends.
1987, John Wilson Foster, “Betraying Presences: Fictional Tidings from Cork, Galway, and the Midlands—Daniel Corkery, Brinsley MacNamara, Edward E. Lysaght”, in Fictions of the Irish Literary Revival: A Changeling Art (Irish Studies), Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, published 1993, part III (The Infinite Pain of Self-realization: The Realist Reply), page 183
Or perhaps walking should be called movement, not travel, for one can walk in circles or travel around the world immobilized in a seat, and a certain kind of wanderlust can only be assuaged by the acts of the body itself in motion, not the motion of the car, boat, or plane.
2000, Rebecca Solnit, “Tracing a Headland: An Introduction”, in Wanderlust: A History of Walking, New York, N.Y., London: Penguin Books, part I (The Pace of Thoughts), page 6
What is it, about this wanderlust? The compulsive desire to travel, surely; to reach out for spaces where the serendipity of experience can unfold of itself into a life journey?
2010, Megan Speers, “Foreword”, in Wanderlust: A Story Told in 50 Wood Engravings (Graphic Novels; 3), Erin, Ont.: The Porcupine’s Quill, page 7
verb
third-person singular simple present wanderlusts, present participle wanderlusting, simple past and past participle wanderlusted
(intransitive) To roam or travel widely.
Quotations
It was the joy of our lives to be once more "hitting the trail," lustily as ever, Sunday last, under the brave lead of one who started the community hike here, and who, after three months wanderlusting in other lands must rejoice to find that a few brave scouts have kept up the good work here and made of us "some hikers."
1916 January, “To Takoma Park—A Self-explanatory Letter”, in Elliot R. Downing, editor, Nature-Study Review, volume XII, number 1, Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing Co., page 37
I went there partly because I had shown signs of terminal wanderlust – and the West Coast is the premier place in the U.S. for wanderlusting around – and partly because L.A. is such a mixture of fact, fantasy, and illusion that, as an Americanist, I felt I had to go.
1992, Gayle Pemberton, “Is it Maya? Or: Notes from Behind the Veil”, in The Hottest Water in Chicago: Notes of a Native Daughter, Hanover, N.H., London: Wesleyan University Press; University Press of New England, published 1998, part 1, page 23