homesick
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of homesick
Explanation
When you're away from home and you miss it terribly, you're homesick. Most kids get homesick when they first go to summer camp. Everyone feels homesick sometimes, but it's probably most common for kids to get homesick when they're on their first sleepover or visiting their grandparents, or even when they leave for college as freshmen. There is a wistful yearning included in the idea of being homesick — a longing to be back where you started. Homesickness came first, from the German heimweh, "home woe" or "home pain."
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.
For the Rolling Stone profile, Zamiri designed 3D-printed masks with phrases from Dylan’s songs, most notably “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” etched onto them.
From Salon • Jan. 28, 2025
“Mixing Up the Medicine” refers to a line from Dylan’s classic “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
From Seattle Times • May 11, 2023
Homesick, she settled in Washington and joined the CIA.
From Washington Post • Dec. 16, 2022
A separate work by the duo, “Subterreanean Homesick Cumbia,” is on view at the Vincent Price Art Museum in East L.A., as part of the group show “Sonic Terrains in Latinx Art.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2022
Homesick, I sighed and moved the mass of meat loaf around my plate.
From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman
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.
