pining
Americanadjective
-
suffering with or expressing longing or yearning for someone or something.
Exposing her vulnerability and loneliness, the poet addresses her country as would a pining woman in a letter to her beloved in a distant land.
Her pining vocals on these tracks throb with the loneliness and emptiness of fresh separation.
-
failing gradually in health or vitality, especially from grief, regret, or longing.
The day after the altercation he took sick, and continued in a pining and languishing condition till his death, which soon ensued.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pining
First recorded in 1200–50; pin(e) 2 ( def. ) + -ing 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; pin(e) 2 ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. ) for the noun sense
Vocabulary lists containing pining
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.
See Examples For:
At that point, Lightbody was pining for a woman who'd rejected his advances.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Instead, young women are pining for throwback, off-road SUVs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
The lack of a son’s POV makes Boy Mom pining both performative and disturbingly real.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026
By all accounts, investors are pining for shares.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
“Winky is pining, Harry Potter,” Dobby whispered sadly.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
Through countless cosmos, breakups, musings and pinings, we felt we knew her – well, the characters she helped craft anyway.
From US News ● Jan. 13, 2014
“O agonistic throes,” tender, passionate yearnings, pinings, triumphant joys, sweet dreams—I took from you all.
From The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman by Gilchrist, Anne Burrows
Do not the dews of darkness steep All pinings of the day in sleep?
From Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes Volume I. by De la Mare, Walter
Know, then, oh mortal Mardian! that when translated hither, thou wilt but put off lowly temporal pinings, for angel and eternal aspirations.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Melville, Herman
I confess that I have no heart pinings for such nonconformists as Dr. Mary Walker or any other individual who believes that eccentricity, serving no purpose but to make one conspicuous, is interesting.
From A String of Amber Beads by Holden, Martha Everts
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.
