yearn
Americanverb (used without object)
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to have an earnest or strong desire; long.
to yearn for a quiet vacation.
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to feel tenderness; be moved or attracted.
They yearned over their delicate child.
verb
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to have an intense desire or longing (for); pine (for)
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to feel tenderness or affection
Synonym Usage
Yearn, long, hanker, pine all mean to feel a powerful desire for something. Yearn stresses the depth and passionateness of a desire: to yearn to get away and begin a new life; to yearn desperately for recognition. Long implies a wholehearted desire for something that is or seems unattainable: to long to relive one's childhood; to long for the warmth of summer. Hanker suggests a restless or incessant craving to fulfill some urge or desire: to hanker for a promotion; to hanker after fame and fortune. Pine adds the notion of physical or emotional suffering as a result of the real or apparent hopelessness of one's desire: to pine for one's native land; to pine for a lost love.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have yearnedperfect
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has yearnedperfect 3rd person singular
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are yearningprogressive
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has been yearningperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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yearnssingular 3rd person
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have been yearningperfect progressive
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yearningparticiple
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am yearningprogressive 1st person singular
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is yearningprogressive 3rd person singular
Past
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had yearnedperfect
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had been yearningperfect progressive
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were yearningprogressive plural
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yearnedparticiple
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was yearningprogressive singular
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yearnedsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of yearn
First recorded before 900; Middle English yernen, Old English giernan derivative of georn “eager”; akin to Old Norse girna “to desire,” Greek chaírein “to rejoice,” Sanskrit háryati “(he) desires”
Explanation
To yearn for something is to really, really want it. You might yearn for freedom or you might yearn for a perfect tamale. Usually you yearn for something or someone you can't easily get. If you have a hankering for pie, you could also say that you yearn for it. Yearn also means "to feel sweet on someone" or "to have affection for something." If your girlfriend moves to Alaska and you’re stuck in Texas, you’d probably yearn for her. And when she comes back to visit, you would still yearn — meaning you’d still feel affection for her.
Vocabulary lists containing yearn
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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List 12
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Yearn to have your weekly groceries delivered to your door? Peapod.com exists to make your grocery shopping easier--and it even lets you specify how ripe you like your bananas.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tell him that his little chair Nestles where the sunbeams meet, That the shoes he used to wear Yearn to kiss his dimpled feet.
From Second Book of Verse by Field, Eugene
Might we not in glancing heavenward on a star so silver fair, Yearn and clasp the hands, and murmur, ‘Would to God that we were there!’
From Astronomical Curiosities Facts and Fallacies by Gore, J. Ellard
The saints who give thee every thought, Whose every act for thee is wrought, Yearn for thine everlasting peace, For bliss with thee, that cannot cease.
From Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works by Kalidasa
Then, from the lips of Editor, I learn, "This Story is the Kind for which I Yearn; Its Advertising brought us such Renown, We jumped Three Hundred Thousand, on that Turn!"
From The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne by Burgess, Gelett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
