repine
Americanverb (used without object)
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
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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
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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
He had his disappointments and sorrows like other men, but he did not repine.
From Recollections and Impressions 1822-1890 by Frothingham, Octavius Brooks
A man who is cheerful and willing under difficulties will always make his way in the world, while one who repines and kicks against his fate only makes it harder for him.
From One of the 28th A Tale of Waterloo by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
He never halts, never repines, never is puzzled, like other men; that tranquillity, full of life, that ceaseless but graceful motion, "without haste, without rest," for which we all are striving, he has attained.
From Life Without and Life Within or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and poems. by Fuller, Margaret
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 Mackay, Charles
A quiet place,—"slow" is the accurate modern epithet for it—"awfully slow;" but to Dorothy a quite suitable home, at which she never repines.
From The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 by Parry, Edward Abbott
I told it to my Lady Pomfret, concluding it would divert her too; and forgetting that she repines when she should laugh, and reasons when she should be diverted.
From The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1 by Cunningham, Peter
That was the only thing she repined about, poor woman, her want of physical strength.
From The Beth Book Being a Study of the Life of Elizabeth Caldwell Maclure, a Woman of Genius by Grand, Sarah
He never repined, nor once even alluded to Keegan.
From The Macdermots of Ballycloran by Trollope, Anthony
The General's daughter repined, perhaps, after her former fortunes.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. by Various
In all this suffering the poor martyr repined not, but to the last called upon his Saviour.
From Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by Foxe, John
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 Douglass, Frederick
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
When Nina discovered how much too well she had succeeded, she wept, cheered up. went away, leaving John, Mr. Ganson and Dorchester repining.
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 had not much time for repining, however, for the three young girls were busily employed in ‘having a good time’.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
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.
