interest
verb
- make a positive impression
- provoke interest, exhibit curiosity
noun
- a kind of commitment, goal, obligation, duty
- Something or someone that leads to an positive emotion
- desire for a specific item or event
- act of exhibiting curiosity
- cost of borrowing
- emotional reaction
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈɪn.tɹɛst/ / /ˈɪn.t(ə.)ɹɪst/ / /ˈɪn.tɚ.ɛst/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.
- The price paid for obtaining, or price received for providing, money or goods in a credit transaction, calculated as a fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed.
“Our bank offers borrowers an annual interest of 5%.”
- Any excess over and above an exact equivalent
“You shall have your desires with interest”
- A great attention and concern from someone or something; intellectual curiosity.
“He has a lot of interest in vintage cars.”
“I have a lot of interest in doing online coding.”
- Attention that is given to or received from someone or something.
“[…] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.”
“Over the past few years, however, interest has waxed again. A series of epidemiological studies, none big enough to be probative, but all pointing in the same direction, persuaded Emma Wilmot of the University of Leicester, in Britain, to carry out a meta-analysis. This is a technique that combines diverse studies in a statistically meaningful way.”
- An involvement, claim, right, share, stake in or link with a financial, business, or other undertaking or endeavor.
“When scientists and doctors write articles and when politicians run for office, they are required in many countries to declare any existing conflicts of interest (competing interests).”
“I have business interests in South Africa.”
- Something which, or someone whom, one is interested in.
“Lexicography is one of my interests.”
“Victorian furniture is an interest of mine.”
- Condition or quality of exciting concern or being of importance.
“The Conscience indeed is already violated when to moral good or evil we oppose things possessing no moral interest: […]”
- Injury, or compensation for injury; damages.
“How can this infinite beauty, power and goodnes admit any correspondencie or similitude with a thing so base and abject as we are, without extreme interest and manifest derogation from his divine greatnesse?”
- The persons and companies interested in any particular business or measure, taken collectively.
“the iron interest; the cotton interest”
“The ‘Railway Interest’ in Parliament constituted a very powerful lobby at this time [mid to late nineteenth century]. It was pledged to put the railway case forward in all matters involving that industry that came before Parliament. This body of MPs was composed of men who were nearly all railway directors or major shareholders. Their influence waned in the early twentieth century but earlier they formed a phalanx of robust opposition to just about every proposal for government regulation of matters pertaining to railways.”
- A genre of factual short films, generally more amusing than informative, especially those not covered by a more specific genre label.
“By interest films is meant a variety of subjects which cannot be classified under such recognized headings as fiction, travel, or topical. They include wonderful inventions, little known industries, applied art, feats of engineering, and other events capable of effective illustration.”
“The arrangements made ensured that the total cost of censorship could be kept down to one-fifth of a penny per foot of film censored (and even one-tenth of a penny per foot in cases of Topical, Travel, Interest and Educational Films).”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English interest, from Old French interesse and interest (French intérêt), from Medieval Latin interesse, from Latin interesse.
- To engage the attention of; to awaken interest in; to excite emotion or passion in, in behalf of a person or thing.
“It might interest you to learn that others have already tried that approach.”
“Action films don't really interest me.”
- To be concerned with or engaged in; to affect; to concern; to excite.
“Oh, rather, gracious sir, / Create me to this glory; since my cause / Doth interest this fair quarrel; valued least, / I am his equal.”
- To cause or permit to share.
“The mystical communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interested in those precious blessings which any one of them receiveth at God's hands.”