Yearn
[jɜːn] or [jɝn]
Definition
(v. t.) To pain; to grieve; to vex.
(v. i.) To be pained or distressed; to grieve; to mourn.
(v. i. & t.) To curdle, as milk.
(v. i.) To be filled with longing desire; to be harassed or rendered uneasy with longing, or feeling the want of a thing; to strain with emotions of affection or tenderness; to long; to be eager.
Typed by Lloyd
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Long, be eager, feel a strong desire.
Edited by Beverly
Definition
v.i. and v.t. (Shak.) to grieve.
v.i. to curdle as milk—also Earn.—n. Yearn′ing rennet.
v.i. to feel earnest desire: to feel uneasiness as from longing or pity.—n. Yearn′ing earnest desire tenderness or pity.—adj. longing.—adv. Yearn′ingly.
v.t. (Spens.) to earn.
Editor: Trudy
Unserious Contents or Definition
To feel in a dream that you are yearning for the presence of anyone, denotes that you will soon hear comforting tidings from your absent friends. For a young woman to think her lover is yearning for her, she will have the pleasure of soon hearing some one making a long-wished-for proposal. If she lets him know that she is yearning for him, she will be left alone and her longings will grow apace.
Editor: Rae
Examples
- It has a charm which, once tasted, a man will yearn to taste again. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- All of us at times yearn for the comfort of an absolute philosophy. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Does not your heart yearn towards her when she pours into your ear her pure, childlike confidences? Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Our hearts yearn for the Louvre. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- But it was not so; I was the same in strength, in earnest craving for sympathy, in my yearning for active exertion. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- I was conscious that every other sentiment, regret, or passion had by degrees merged into a yearning, clinging affection for them. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The next day however, he felt wistful and yearning. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- The desire and yearning of my soul is for an African _nationality_. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- His arms were yearning up to her; but she drew away, and they remained facing each other, divided by the distance that her words had created. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- The next thing he has a strong yearning to see is the spot where the Saviour was crucified. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Was it really only an idea, or was it the interpretation of a profound yearning? D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- It must be played--in went the yearned-for seasoning--thus favoured, I played it with relish. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- But her heart yearned with sad tenderness for all that she was to leave behind. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- She yearned towards the perfect Right, that it might make a throne within her, and rule her errant will. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Margaret yearned after that old house, and the placid tranquillity of that old well-ordered, monotonous life. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- She yearned for the strength which such a change would give,--even for a few hours to be in the midst of that bright life, and to feel young again. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Inclination yearned back to its old, easier custom. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- There is nothing more lovely, to which the heart more yearns than a free-spirited boy, gentle, brave, and generous. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Then the soul of the thirsty one, in so far as he is thirsty, desires only drink; for this he yearns and tries to obtain it? Plato. The Republic.
- Don't want any one who yearns to enter a laboratory and experiment. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- The machine which exists is accepted in all its essentials: the goo-goo yearns for a somewhat smoother rotation. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Haven't you seen yet, that my heart yearns to make a Christian of you? Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
Checked by Aubrey