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
Related Words
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
- unyearned adjective
- yearner noun
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”
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.
So what to do about your underwhelming past lovers, your Pisces Venusian yearning, your throbbing heart, your efforts to prepare yourself to love from the most whole place you possibly can?
From Los Angeles Times
He goes further at the end of the book, asserting that “one would have had to yearn desperately for a warm and loving childhood to so fantastically create the toys of such a childhood.”
As Bangladesh votes on Thursday after a spate of deadly sectarian violence, Suchitra Biswas from the minority Hindu community yearns only for peace and harmony.
From Barron's
The part of me that knew how good it would feel to be held and cuddled was yearning.
From Literature
Still, the yearning for a vanished past is never a good guide to public policy.
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.
