to yearn deeply; suffer with longing; long painfully (often followed byfor ).
to pine for one's home and family.
to fail gradually in health or vitality from grief, regret, or longing (often followed byaway ).
Separated by their families, the lovers pined away.
Archaic. to be discontented; fret.
any evergreen resinous coniferous tree of the genus Pinus, of the N hemisphere, with long needle-shaped leaves and brown cones: family Pinaceae See also longleaf pine nut pine pitch pine Scots pine
any other tree or shrub of the family Pinaceae
the wood of any of these trees
any of various similar but unrelated plants, such as ground pine and screw pine
(intr; often foll by for or an infinitive) to feel great longing or desire; yearn
to become ill, feeble, or thin through worry, longing, etc
archaic (tr) to mourn or grieve for
See yearn.
First recorded before 1000; Middle English pin(e), pigne, Old English pīntrēow “pine tree,” from Old French pin and Latin pīnus
First recorded before 900; Middle English pinen “to torture, torment, inflict pain, be in pain”; Old English pīnian “to torture,” derivative of pīn “torture” ( Middle English pine ), from Late Latin pēna, Latin poena “punishment”; see pain
If you pine for someone, you desperately want to see them, be with them, or perhaps smother them with kisses. If you're texting your ex-boyfriend over 50 times a day, there's a pretty good chance that you still pine for him. In Old English, pine meant "to torture or cause to experience pain," which seems quite fitting if you've known what it's like to pine for something or someone. The verb pine should not be confused with the noun pine, as in the evergreen tree. If you are from the Northeast and find yourself living in the Caribbean, you may pine for the sight of a pine tree, but the lovely weather should ease the pain.
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Firefighters ferried in personnel, equipment and pallets of supplies by boat amid gusty winds and rough seas as they raced to save sensitive wildlife, including the continent’s rarest species of pine tree.
From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026
The deadly fires that devastated homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena also laid waste to a lush canopy of leaves and pine needles that had cooled and shaded residents here for generations.
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026
They are from 7 to 8 feet long, made from carefully selected 50-to-60-year-old pine and spruce trees felled in early summer; tests of replica spears have suggested a range of about 38 yards.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026
To make the soup in captivity, keepers mix pine wood chippings from the flies' natural habitat with rain water.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Bending down, he felt along the edge of the carpet near the wall for the pine bar—part of a music stand he had hidden there that afternoon.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
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.
