repine
Americanverb (used without object)
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repines,
present (3rd person singular)
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repined,
past participle, past
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repining
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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repinesimple
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repinessimple
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have repinedperfect
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has repinedperfect
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am repiningprogressive
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are repiningprogressive
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is repiningprogressive
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have been repiningperfect progressive
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has been repiningperfect progressive
Past
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repinedsimple
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had repinedperfect
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was repiningprogressive
-
were repiningprogressive
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had been repiningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of repine
Explanation
The verb repine describes expressing gloom or discontent. Brooding, fretful, and sad — these are the traits of people who repine at their circumstances in life. Early American poet Anne Bradstreet used repine in her well-known poem, "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th 1666," describing how the speaker got over the loss: "And when I could no longer look, / I blest His grace that gave and took, / That laid my goods now in the dust. / Yea, so it was, and so 'twas just. / It was his own; it was not mine. / Far be it that I should repine."
Vocabulary lists containing repine
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
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“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift
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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.
See Examples For:
We are republishing Patterson’s repine in honor of the holiday.
From Slate ● Jul. 4, 2012
Must Man, the chiefest Work of Art Divine, Be doom'd in endless Discord to repine?
From Time Magazine Archive
But if no one agrees, the author need not repine.
From Time Magazine Archive
I will not pause either to accuse or repine.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Yet they become stronger and more vehement every day, so that I am powerless to overcome them, and in weariness repine.
From Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by B.D.
And next, whoe'er sees, We'll drink on our knees To the King; may he thirst that repines: A fig for those traytors That look to our waters, They have nothing to do with our wines.
From Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 by Charles Mackay
Perchance it never comes, and the weary one may be joined to that which heaven never intended it to be joined, or it repines and goes to the grave unloved.
From The Land of Mystery by Edward Sylvester Ellis
When I laugh, something within me suffers and repines; it is by no means rare for me to pass suddenly and without transition from the wildest gayety to the profoundest sadness and melancholy.
From The Cross of Berny by Florence Fendall
At this who ever envies or repines I leave him to his lot, and like my own.
From The Poetical Works of John Milton by John Milton
She repines, her womanly nature revolts at the thought—the destiny her superstition pictured so dark and terrible, stares her in the face.
From An Outcast or, Virtue and Faith by F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
The queen was truly an example of patience and resignation, for she never repined, not even in her most agonizing moments.
From Secret History of the Court of England, from the Accession of George the Third to the Death of George the Fourth, Volume II (of 2) Including, Among Other Important Matters, Full Particulars of the Mysterious Death of the Princess Charlotte by Lady Anne Hamilton
What if the head, the eye, or ear repined To serve, mere engines of the ruling mind?
From The Right of American Slavery by T. W. (True Worthy) Hoit
Sir, the Churches in this country have long repined at the position of the Churches in England on the subject of Slavery.
From Abolition Fanaticism in New York Speech of a Runaway Slave from Baltimore, at an Abolition Meeting in New York, Held May 11, 1847 by Frederick Douglass
Nevertheless they repined not, but took everything in the spirit of calm philosophy.
From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 3 by Frederick Whymper
Satan, who had eyed me from the first as if he repined at the delay I had obtained, came forward.
From Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 7 by Various
More a conscious repining at their existence, mixed with revulsion at the thought that she occasionally had to share space with them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
Far from repining in the sheltered world of the rectory, she was surrounded by sensational, exotic, dramatic life.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2013
Ripening but not repining, Paul seemed to those around him a strong and saintly character, though he knew himself still a struggling beginner at his endless job.
From Time Magazine Archive
It goes: Somewhere the sun is shining, Somewhere the songbirds dwell, Hush, then, thy sad repining, God lives, and all is well.
From Time Magazine Archive
She whispered a poem: “The storm is past, no more repining Behold! the gentle sun is shining” “Yeah,” muttered Charles, “but the track is still too heavy for Seabiscuit.”
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
